Report: “Missouri Senate Puts Library Money Back in Budget”

From the St. Louis Post Dispatch:

Budget writers in the Missouri Senate on Wednesday restored the state funding for local public libraries that had been stripped from the spending plan by the House.

During an hourslong review of the House spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1, Sen. Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, inserted $4.5 million for libraries back into the budget, setting up a showdown heading into the final weeks of the legislative session.

The House and Senate are on track to finish the spending plan by May 5.

The library money was removed from the House blueprint by House Budget Chairman Cody Smith and backed by the Republicans who control the chamber last week. He cited a lawsuit by two library groups to overturn a new state law banning sexually explicit material in school libraries.

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