The Library Items in Governor Scott Walker's 2013-15 Budget (Department of Public Instruction)

For those of you who attended the Wisconsin Library Association's Library Legislative Day, you'll recall that I predicted -- OK, hoped for -- flat funding across the board.

Here's the good news -- Department of Administration Governor's Budget Recommendations.

The Governor's Increased Expenditure Recommendation #1:
Newsline for the Blind (page 152)

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The Governor's Increased Expenditure Recommendations #2:
BadgerLink (page 154)

The Governor's Increased Expenditure Recommendations #3:
Library Service Contracts (page 159)

The Governor's Increased Expenditure Not Approved

In other words, the additional aid needed to meet statutory requirement of 13.0% was not approved.  Funding for public library systems remains flat in the 2013-15 biennium.  (So I'm batting .250.  No MVP in this arena.)

If it were truly bad news, the dollar amounts in the "Items Not Approved" table above would equal what's highlighted below.

Thank yous are in order.  (And I understand that there may be much else in the budget that you don't like.  Just focus on libraries.  It could have been much worse, folks.  In the meantime, though, we need to remain vigilant since there could be efforts to make it so, i.e, much worse, between now and June 30th.)

Next step:  Deciding on the viability of moving forward to restore the 10% cut to public library system funding.  Can we secure 9 votes on the Joint Committee on Finance?

LINK to Governor's recommendations for all individual state agencies.

The Wisconsin State Budget Process:  Where We Are Today