Listen up, West Warwick council members, Ed Fitzpatrick has some good advice

And the future's not looking so bright.

Ed Fitzpatrick: Library budgets should be last cuts in bad economic times. (Providence Journal, 6/2/2011)

Excerpt:   To protect your library, you need to speak up now, Caplan said.

And West Warwick Councilman Edward A. Giroux plans to do just that at a June 14 Town Meeting. The proposed budget would cut library funding from $732,759 to $500,000, but that’s only part of the problem. State law requires that towns at least level-fund their libraries to qualify for state aid, so the proposed cut would result in the loss of $171,000 in state aid, he said.

Giroux said the town faces hard choices and council members have discussed reinstating some money. But he is sure the town can avoid devastating the library budget. He talked about tapping “rainy day” funds. He said the budget doesn’t factor in certain tax revenue. He said he’d consider a tiny tax increase. And he’d like the state to ease the level-funding requirement so towns receive aid if they maintain 90 percent of library funding.

“The library is critical to a community,” Giroux said, emphasizing that cuts would affect those who can least afford it: children, senior citizens and the poor.

Not to take anything away from Fox News, but as Walter Cronkite said: “Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.”

Related article:
Rhode Island's West Warwick Public Library, 'The only place left to go', facing deep cuts to budget. (4/18/2011)