New York’s libraries have a lot to celebrate today!
The budget process has come to its conclusion, and thanks to everyone’s tireless advocacy efforts, we have had a very successful budget cycle. Our message that “Libraries Are Education”, and that library funding should increase proportionately with increases in school aid has been heard loud and clear. Thanks to all your efforts, in this year’s budget, libraries will receive:
- +$5M increase in library aid over the Governor’s Executive Budget, bringing total library aid in FY2015-16 to $91.6M. This represents nearly a 6% increase in library funding over last year, functionally tracing this year’s percentage increase in education funding.
- $1.3M reimbursement for MTA Payroll taxes remitted in FY2014-15
- Permanent exemption from MTA Payroll taxes for public libraries and library systems going forward
- $14M in library construction aid
This year’s budget was an extremely tough fight every step of the way, and these lines represent hard-fought victories. The $5M represents the biggest single-year increase in library aid in 7 years. After 5 years, we finally secured the permanent MTA Tax exemption. Though this might seem like it only impacts the affected areas, the permanent exemption now takes an entire issue off the table each year, and frees up political capital to push harder on the aid program. These wins were only achievable through your dogged advocacy, so take a victory lap!
