$500,000 "Placeholder" Keeps Florida Library Funding Alive -- Barely

Jackson County Florida

2008 Population:  49,656

Link to March 17 Jackson County Floridian, "State may cut all library funding". 

Excerpt:   
The Florida Library Association warns that appropriations committees in the Florida House and Senate have “adopted positions eliminating all funding for Florida’s State Aid to Public Libraries program.”

However, according to Rep. Marti Coley, R-Marianna, that’s not entirely true anymore.

As of Tuesday, the House Transportation and Economic Development Committee slipped in a roughly $500,000 “placeholder amount” to keep funding alive, at least for now.

Coley said the add-on will help keep library funding on the table at conference level, where the House and Senate iron out compromises as they merge their budget proposals.

Rep. Coley acknowledges that $500,000 is a far cry from last year’s appropriation, but says the figure could go up or down in the compromise stage.

Last year, legislators funded library aid at $21.2 million.


Related article:

Florida's $21.2 Million Aid to Public Libraries on Chopping Block. (3/12/2010)