Okay, so nobody's perfect. In yesterday's post I gave an e-mail I received (with permission from J.C. Morgan, director of Campbell County Public Library") that had a bit of erroneous information in it. The e-mail stated that construction grants would not be affected in the budget for the next two years, but that is not the case. To wit:

Yesterday, I believed that the construction grants were held harmless in both the House version and the Senate version of the budget. That is not true. The Senate version of the budget cuts 1.5% in the first year of the biennium for construction grants. There is an additional 1% cut to construction grant money in the second year (making the total cut in the second year 2.5%).

These reduction are in addition to the cuts that I outlined yesterday.

Yesterday, the conference committee which will decide on the final version of the budget was also appointed. It is:

Senate

Sen. Leeper, chair
Sen. Harris, vice chair
Sen. Williams
Sen. Stine
Sen. Stivers
Sen. Seum
Sen. Gibson
Sen. Worley
Sen. Turner
Sen. Rhoads

House

Rep. Stumbo
Rep. Adkins
Rep. Clark
Rep. Damron
Rep. Stacy
Rep. Rand, chair
Rep. Hoover
Rep. DeWeese
Rep. Stewart

If any of this group are YOUR legislators, you need to make special efforts to call them immediately and let them know that the budget cuts for Kentucky’s public libraries are severe and that these cuts WILL impact the operations of Kentucky’s public libraries. Remind them that the cuts outlined in either version of the budget are in addition to the 24% cut in funding for Kentucky’s public libraries over the last year and a half.

Please call 800-372-7181 and leave a message for your legislator. If you want to leave a message for the entire Conference Committee, you can just tell the operator that. The operator will automatically select all the names above for you. If the operator asks for a bill number, just tell him/her that it’s the legislative budget. This will be a painless call for you to make. It will take, I assure you, less than five minutes of your day.

I've made the call, and it really is painless and takes less than five minutes. The nice lady on the line typed my message as I gave it, and has forwarded it on to all the legislators. If we don't speak for the libraries, who will?