PA libraries may lose funding

I shared this article from the Saturday, July 14 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette with my True Gods of Sound and Stone group.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07195/801514-74.stm

The Keystone Park and Recreation Fund usually spends 4% of its annual budget on library expansion and repair projects. Last year that 4% = $4 million.

Due to the recent budget woes, the state Senate has proposed to transfer $40 million of the Keystone Fund's budget to cleanup of hazardous waste, which would result in a loss of $1.6 million for library funding. While such clean-up is surely necessary, perhaps the funds for it could be obtained from another source so that the usual recipients of Keystone monies are not adversely affected.

In an editorial printed by the PG staff on the same day as Hoover's article, http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07195/801593-192.stm
the editors decry the plans to reduce the Keystone Fund's budget and suggest that State Rep. Kate Harper's plan, to take $40 million from the $650 million surplus, is a better option.

It seems that whether public, academic or school, libraries must fight tooth and nail to secure funding!