Report: “Top Missouri Lawmaker Moves To Strip Library Funding”

From the Associated Press (AP):

 A powerful Missouri state lawmaker on Tuesday moved to strip state funding for public libraries over a fight about books.

Republican House Budget Committee Chairman Cody Smith’s budget proposal, unveiled Tuesday, would cut all $4.5 million in state funding that libraries were slated to get next fiscal year.

Smith said he’s upset that state and school libraries are suing to overturn a new Missouri law that bans sexually explicit material in school libraries. He said the state shouldn’t subsidize the lawsuit with funding.

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More From the Missouri Independent:

[Cody] Smith also took aim at some smaller lines in the budget, targeting libraries because the Missouri Library Association joined the ACLU and the Missouri Association of School Libraries in a suit challenging a new state law limiting the materials available in school libraries. Smith wants to cut $4.5 million, the full budget for state aid to libraries, in retaliation for the lawsuit.

“I don’t think we should subsidize that effort,” Smith said about the cut to money that flows through the budget of Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft. “We are going to take out the funding and that is why.”

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Filed under: Funding, Libraries, News, Public Libraries, School Libraries