Regional Library Leaders Seek Local Help To Fight Budget Cuts

Athens Regional Library System leaders asked member of the Oconee Library Board of Trustees on Monday to contact their state legislative delegation to oppose cuts to library funding requested by Gov. Brian Kemp.

Jean Mead, assistant director of Regional Library Services and Outreach for the Athens Regional Library System, told the Library Board that Kemp has included public libraries in his request that certain state agencies submit plans for a 4 percent budget reduction for the fiscal year underway.

Kemp also is asking for an additional 2 percent for the upcoming fiscal year, Mead said.

The money likely will be taken from the materials grant the state makes to libraries, according to Mead.

The legislature, which meets in January, will respond to the proposed budget cuts and to the governor’s proposed Fiscal Year 2021 budget “so things may change considerably during this process,” Mead told the Oconee Library Board.

“Please contact everybody and tell them that we obviously don’t want these changes to happen,” Mead said.

For more on the story, with a video of the Library Board meeting, please go to Oconee County Observations.