Michigan Legislative Committee Votes to Reduce State Aid to Public Libraries by 40%

Link to September 28 Grand Rapids News post, "Proposed 40 percent budget cut to Michigan libraries may hurt interlibrary loan system".

Excerpt: Lawmakers are trying to erase a $2.8 billion shortfall by the end of Wednesday to prevent a partial shutdown of state government.

The library cuts are just one of the items on the table.

"This is a big loss for a lot of people," said Sandra Wilson, director of the Lakeland Library Cooperative. It covers 41 West Michigan library systems and allows for patrons from any library to check out resources and return them in any of the member libraries.

The group, which delivered about three million items last year, would lose more than $150,000 of its $1.9 million budget if the proposed cut goes through.