Legislature's failure hitting home...

[nickinSTL]

All the while the state Legislature refuses to put Illinois on a sane budgetary path, state services are breaking down.

Most recently comes the news that the North Suburban Library System will shrink into a shell of its former self, shutting down most of its services on May 30 and laying off most of its staff, including executive director Sarah Long.

The system is one of 10 library cooperatives that for 45 years have linked public, school, university and corporate libraries across the state, making it possible for people to borrow almost any book from any library. The other cooperatives are on different budgeting schedules, but soon will be in the same fix.

The cooperatives have long been one of the advantages of living in a state such as Illinois -- like having access to the world's largest library. And the co-ops have done it without a budget increase for 20 years.

much more at link:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/commentary/2277174,CST-EDT-edit16.article

[murielm99]

1. Dang. There goes interlibrary loan.

When one lives in a small rural community, it is a necessity.

[nickinSTL]

5. I may have spoken too soon on the safety of loaning materials

The loaning of materials between libraries in Illinois is dependent on the delivery system run out of the library systems.

Delivery remains the highest priority of all 9 library systems, but one, North Suburban Library System (NSLS), based in Wheeling, may not have the funding to continue providing delivery much longer.

In response, the libraries of NSLS have come up with a plan of making donations to the system to provide funding. However, the largest public library in the system, the Des Plaines Public Library will not participate, meaning that when NSLS' delivery funding runs out, the Des Plaines library will no longer receive delivery. The library will have to rely on other means of loaning materials, such as sending materials by US Postal Service.

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=384957

So far, NSLS is the only system that is in this level of crisis, however, to call the library system funding situation dire seems to be nearly understating the point.

Due to the budget crisis, whereas there are now 9 library systems, chances are that by this time next year, there will only be 2 - one in northern Illinois, and one in southern Illinois. What this change will bring and how it will affect library service across the state is not yet known.

[nickinSTL]

2. so far, lending between libraries in Illinois is safe

The Illinois State Library has mandated that the systems allocate their remaining resources to support delivery of library materials and the continuation of the LLSAPs (Local Library System Automation Project) - the library software/online catalogs that make a lot of that lending easier.

For more information, here are the messages from the various library systems regarding their plans at this point:

http://www.nsls.info/articles/detail.aspx?articleID=272">North Suburban Library System in Wheeling
http://www.alliancelibrarysystem.com/pdf10/ALSmay2010.pdf">Alliance Library System in East Peoria
http://www.lcls.org/2010/05/the-restructuring-of-lcls/">Lewis & Clark Library System in Edwardsville

These are the systems that have so far announced significant cuts. So far, layoffs have been announced for a total of 43 staff across these three systems. These cuts are all in the non-delivery areas of the systems and account for most of the North Suburban non-delivery staff, about half of the Alliance non-delivery staff, and a quarter of the Lewis & Clark non-delivery staff.

The Rolling Prairie Library System in Decatur will be moving to a 4 day work week.
The Metropolitan Library System in Burr Ridge will not be making cuts at this time, but will be monitoring the situation.

[ColesCountyDem]

3. Due to a 'shortfall' in state funding, our library ....

.... is now closed one day a week and opens one hour later and closes one hour earlier on the remaining days.

*sigh*

[ColesCountyDem]

4. A L.T.T.E. in our local paper, written by a fellow Democrat, EIU's Dr. Andrew McNitt....

LETTER: Tax hike, spending freeze only solution

By ANDREW McNITT, Charleston | Posted: Friday, May 21, 2010 3:51 am

Democrats and Republicans in the state legislature are putting their own narrow partisan interests ahead of the welfare of the citizens of this state.

We are in an awful predicament. The state of Illinois has a $12 billion deficit. This is equal to approximately 20 percent of our total appropriations or 40 percent of our general fund. California is the only state in worse shape. The longer we take to address this problem the deeper the hole gets.

No amount of minor fiddling with the budget is going to do the job. Even though a forensic audit is a good idea it isn’t going to find enough money to balance the state budget.

Managed care is no panacea for Medicaid costs. Medicaid costs which have risen because of the recession won’t go down until the recession ends.

There are no easy solutions. In the end the Democrats are going to have to accept cuts and the Republicans are going to have to accept tax increases.

Speaker Madigan’s excuse is that he won’t vote for a tax increase without Republican support and Republicans from university districts who face only token opposition like Senator Righter and Representative Rose are also sitting on their hands.

The income tax rate in Illinois is relatively low compared to other states (see http://money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/taxesbystate2005/index.html).

A small increase in a tax which is based upon the ability to pay is the fairest way to raise revenue. When combined with a freeze on spending it would go a long way towards resolving our problems.

ANDREW McNITT

Charleston

http://jg-tc.com/news/opinion/article_88c072ba-647b-11df-9f86-001cc4c002e0.html?mode=story