COLUMBUS — Some 350 library advocates and a large yellow dog mascot descended on the Ohio Statehouse on Tuesday, the day before lawmakers are expected to cast their first budget votes that could eliminate their permanent funding source.
Gov. Mike DeWine won applause as he urged continuation of public libraries’ dedicated fund that slices 1.7 percent off the top of all general tax revenues to send their way, something he proposed increasing to 1.75 percent in his plan. That means library funding is now tied to how well the state is doing, and right now the state is doing very well.
“You ride up, and you ride down with that ..., and it is probably something that should be continued,” Mr. DeWine said. “We face a budget that is what I call a more normal budget.”
“It’s not a budget that we’re struggling with,” he said. “It’s a budget that gets us back to normal. ...There’s certainly not a lot of excess money sitting around at all.”
Mr. DeWine told the crowd he personally struggled with reading as a child until he was taken under the wing of his aunt, a Dayton-area librarian.
“Just get ’em reading, get them excited,” he said.
The governor’s budget would have equalized the percentage of revenue dedicated to the Public Library Fund and the Local Government Fund at 1.75 percent. The proposal unveiled by fellow Republicans in the House of Representatives would keep the LGF hike but eliminate the permanent source for libraries altogether.
Instead, the House proposal, as amended Tuesday, would directly appropriate $490 million next year and $500 million the second year. But libraries say they are in line during the current fiscal year for about $530 million.
These cuts are not occurring during hard economic times for the state. Numbers released this week indicate state tax collections were $530 million, or 2.6 percent, above expectations through March with three months left in the fiscal year.
“First and foremost, if we’re making decisions as a state based on creating a strong economic future, then we need to start by investing in libraries,” said Lucas Camuso-Stall, director of government relations for the Toledo Lucas County Public Library. “You can bring the next big thing to Ohio, but if our kiddos aren’t literate, how successful are these great businesses and great projects that will be investing in our community going to be?”
The House plans to vote Wednesday on House Bill 96. Counting state dollars as well as federal cash flowing through the state pipeline on its way to schools, local governments, and others, the plan would total roughly $200 billion over two years, less than the governor’s proposal.
That vote will launch Senate debate over the next month or so. A final compromise must reach the governor’s desk by the end of the fiscal year on June 30.
“We will continue to be the highest funded library system in all of America ...,” Rep. Brian Stewart (R., Ashville), House Finance Committee chairman, said when detailing proposed changes last week.
“This, I think, just provides transparency ..,” he said. “We shouldn’t have any government program increasing based on a percentage when they’re outpacing inflation. Every two years, we need to do our job and say, ‘What is the actual amount of money that we believe should be spent here?’”
Mr. DeWine urged the crowd to visit with their local lawmakers to tell their own personal stories and reasons for keeping — and possibly raising — libraries’ slice of the budget pie.
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a pet project of First Lady Fran DeWine, is also not immune. The program provides free books each month to enrolled children up to the age of 5, including currently 411,000 Ohioans.
Mr. DeWine proposed an increase from $8 million to $10 million a year, but the House, per Tuesday’s amendment, would increase funding just $250,000 a year.
The budget also tinkers with the inner operations of libraries, telling them that they must place material relating to sexual orientation or gender identify in a place not accessible to minors.
It would also reduce the length of the terms of trustees on school district free library and county and regional library districts from seven years to four.
First Published April 8, 2025, 4:09 p.m.
