On Wednesday, March 10, Governor Pat Quinn will be making his Budget Address to the General Assembly. Before that time, the governor is inviting the public to provide comments and suggestions on the structure of the budget. This is our chance to let him know the importance of keeping funding in place for Illinois’ libraries and library systems.

Take a minute today to visit budget.illinois.gov and leave a comment expressing your support for continued funding of the Illinois library systems and the library per capita grants.

Our friends at the Responsible Budget Coalition have assembled some facts and talking points for a general message on budget management:

  • “The budget is broken. Illinois is 49th of 50 states in education funding, dead last in state employees per resident and according to a new report has underfunded human services by $4.4 billion since 2002. Clearly the problem is NOT too much spending. Please raise revenue to fund these essential services.”
  • “Public services are needed more than ever by families struggling in the recession. More cuts are the wrong approach—they will cause more harm in lost services and lost jobs. At this time of need, Illinois needs to step up, reform taxes, save services and jobs.”
  • “More than 30 states have raised taxes to keep pace in this recession. Illinois has the nation’s lowest income-tax rate and a narrow sales-tax base—we’re out of step and falling further behind. We need tax reform to invest in our communities, not more cuts to public services and jobs.”
  • “We’re all hurting from this broken budget—teachers being laid off, child care cut, libraries closed, universities raising tuition through the roof. We need leaders who will be honest about the need for tax reform to stop these cuts. We elect leaders to fix tough problems, not defend a broken status quo. Please pass HB 174 to raise revenue now.”

Although these are not library-specific, feel free to use them as a starting point for your own message. The Responsible Budget Coalition has also set up their own communication form to get the message to the governor.

With the budget address less than a week away, it’s important that we get word to the governor NOW that he needs to keep libraries and library systems adequately funded in the upcoming budget.