By David Garrick / San Diego Union-Tribune / April 17, 2024
The San Diego Library Foundation says proposed budget cuts to the city’s 36-branch library system would be crippling and worsen a track record of chronic underfunding.
Mayor Todd Gloria’s proposed budget for the new fiscal year wouldn’t close any branches or reduce hours of service, but it would slash money for events, technology, employee training and donation matching. The reductions in events and technology funding would hit branches in low-income areas particularly hard, said Patrick Stewart, the foundation’s chief executive.
“It proposes crippling cuts that decimate programs at every library, extend the system’s already unreasonable waiting list times, and hamper technology access in communities of concern,” Stewart said.
The City Council is scheduled early next month to begin debating the mayor’s proposed budget, which he released Friday. The council is expected to approve a final version in mid-June.
Funding for library events and programming would shrink from $400,000 to $150,000 under the mayor’s proposal, jeopardizing many of the 5,000 to 6,000 events and activities typically held each year. Stewart said roughly 60 percent of those events are geared toward young people. Additional funding for events and programming comes from funds the city has available to match philanthropic donations. Those available funds would shrink from $1.2 million to $900,000.
In a budget summary, library staff said the loss of events programming would make it harder to fund responsive and relevant events in each community, posing a hurdle to improving equity across the system.
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