dragonlady7

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dsudis https://dsudis.tumblr.com/post/713172414426644480/dare-to-dm-dare-to-dm-welp-the-missouri-house :

dare-to-dm https://dare-to-dm.tumblr.com/post/713158358234021889/dare-to-dm-welp-the-missouri-house-of :

dare-to-dm https://dare-to-dm.tumblr.com/post/713153241698926592/welp-the-missouri-house-of-legislatures-just :

Welp, the Missouri House of Legislatures just voted to defund public libraries https://www.kcur.org/politics-elections-and-government/2023-03-29/missouri-house-gives-initial-approval-to-45-6-billion-state-budget-that-defunds-libraries .

I’m honestly shocked and dismayed and heartbroken. Like, I knew things were bad, but I didn’t think it was this bad already.

I’m also quite frankly shocked at how small the state budget for libraries was in the first place ($4.5 million). I’ve visited so many quality libraries all across Missouri that do so much for their communities. When I was a social worker, the local library was always the first place I’d visit in the communities I worked in, because I knew they had good services to offer and could help me get connected to other local supports. Like, even from just a heartless financial standpoint, I can guarantee public libraries are worth the money.

I’m just really sad right now.

Here is the current appropriation committee https://www.senate.mo.gov/22web/aprp/ for Missouri. If you live in Missouri and your representative is on that list, you should definitely contact them and let them know this is an important issue to you.

My own representative is not, though I already contacted his office anyway. I’m genuinely unsure of what I can do, but I feel like this is something I need to act on.

I am a public librarian (though not in the state of Missouri) so I want to add a little information just in the interests of correctly calibrating the level of upset here.

Public libraries in Missouri, as I believe in most of the US, are organized on a local level–municipalities, counties, or groups of municipalities or counties united into a library district.

The vast majority of public library funding comes from taxes levied in the locality that that library serves.

State aid to libraries typically constitutes a pretty small fraction of a library’s funding–there are about 400 public libraries in Missouri, so that $4.5 million cited above would work out to about $11,000 each, which certainly isn’t keeping any given library running.

The loss of all state aid to public libraries will probably have a greater impact on very small libraries, but this does not mean a total end of funding for any public library. The state does not control the majority of funding for public libraries.

You know who controls the majority of funding for public libraries? Local voters.

Vote in your city and county elections to elect the people who set the budget for your library if it doesn’t have its own special tax!

Vote in library board elections to choose the people who will determine the library’s budget (and respond to book challenges) if your library does have its own tax!

And for the love of god, VOTE YES ANY TIME YOUR LIBRARY HAS A MILLAGE ON THE BALLOT. That’s the specific tax that directly funds your local library! THAT is how you keep your local library going! (Your picture was not posted)