Queens Library facing monster budget cuts

With a nearly $5 billion budget deficit that could get even worse due to potential funding reductions from the state, many New York City agencies and programs can expect to see less money in their coffers this year.
However, when Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently released his updated preliminary executive budget to deal with the shortfall, one of the agencies that could suffer some of the most severe cuts – both in fiscal year (FY) 2010 and FY 2011 – is the Queens Public Library.
In FY 2009, the Queens Library received $89,177,000 in city funding and that amount has been reduced to $83,682,000 in FY 2010, according to figures released by the city. However, that cut pales in comparison to the proposed monster cut in FY 2011 that would put city funding at $69,320,000 – 23 percent less than it received in FY 2009.
On Tuesday, February 9, Queens Library Director Thomas W. Galante testified before the Queens Borough Board that the Queens Library’s overall cut from FY 2008 to the proposed number for FY 2011 would be $25.9 million, or a loss of 27 percent of its city funding. Galante also said that state funding could be cut by $1 million this year.
“These are drastic reductions to our budget,” Galante said in his testimony. “Unless these cuts are restored, library doors all over Queens will be closed all weekend, every weekend and some during the week as well. Some libraries will be open only two or three days per week.”
Already, budget cuts have caused the Queens Library to close 14 of the 62 branches on the weekends. In addition, the cuts are being proposed at a time when the Queens Library, which is the largest circulation library in the city, yet receives the least funding, received the prestigious Library Journal’s national “Library of the Year” award in 2009.
Galante also testified that the proposed cuts come shortly after Bloomberg’s State of the City address where he vowed to meet economic challenges head on by answering challenges that included finding out how to help those hit hardest by the economic downfall; making it easier to open and grow small businesses; connecting black and Hispanic young people to opportunities, and finding new ways to stretch every dollar to the limit.
“We know that free and open access to public libraries, seven days a week, is the answer to every question,” Galante said.
Meanwhile, local elected officials are cautioning that this is only a preliminary budget and there is still time to restore some of the proposed cuts when the City Council gets to negotiate the budget later this year.
“The process just began,” said Dan Andrews, a spokesperson for Queens Borough President Helen Marshall, who has been a big supporter of the Queens libraries, giving nearly $80 million in funding to the institution since taking office in 2002. “She will be working with the Queens City Council delegation and hopefully the cuts won’t be as serve as we are seeing now.”
Last year, the Mayor’s Executive Budget proposed nearly $17 million in cuts to the libraries in FY 2010, and the City Council restored almost $12 million the libraries.
“I expect to be fully engaged in every effort to protect and defend our libraries and to make sure that Queens gets what it deserves and that the people of Queens get what they deserve,” said Queens City Councilmember Jimmy Van Bramer, who is the new Chair of the Council’s Library Committee and previously served as the Chief External Affairs Officer at the Queens Library.