Automatic budget cuts were triggered today that resulted in completely cutting off all state funding for California public libraries.
Earlier this year, Governor Jerry Brown signed a budget that cut state funding for libraries in California in half from the previous year. He originally proposed to get rid of all state funding for libraries but agreed to keeping half after the California Library Association got involved.
It looks like Jerry Brown gets his original wish after all. The remaining funding that was allocated for libraries was dependent on the state getting a certain amount in tax revenue for the 2011 year. If they did not hit revenue targets, then the state would no longer fund libraries in California at all.
The California Department of Finance reported today that the state is $2.2 billion short of the necessary $86.2 billion revenue target. As a result, $1 billion will be automatically cut from state program spending effective January 1, 2012. All state funding for California public libraries is part of the automatic cuts.
The automatic cuts add on to the already planned cuts in state funding for libraries. The final result is that the state will have cut California public library budgets by $30.4 million compared to last year. Ouch.