ST. LOUIS– Missouri's Republican-led House voted to cut all funding for libraries in its version of the state's annual budget, an unprecedented move that has angered librarians and patrons across the state who rely on the facilities for everything from books to educational programming and internet access.
The proposal is not yet final; it now sits before the state Senate's appropriations committee along with the rest of the annual $45.6 billion budget, and Republican chair Sen. Lincoln Hough said it would be his intention to restore library funding.
But for those who manage or use the state's 160 library districts, especially in rural areas where services are not as robust, the threat feels real, librarians and patrons told the PBS NewsHour.
"The majority of Missouri libraries are small libraries, and for smaller communities that rely on this funding to serve their communities, to provide summer reading programing, to provide new books, new materials, books, and to pay their staff, this will have an absolutely devastating effect," said Judy Garrett, who has served as a librarian at the Gentry County Public Library for 27 years.
Gentry County, located 90 miles north of Kansas City, is home to a little over 6,000 people, many of whom, like residents in other rural parts of the state, rely heavily on their libraries for internet access, Garrett said.
In Missouri, 20 percent of the population – more than 1.26 million people — do not have high-speed internet access. Nearly 34 percent of Missouri's population live in rural parts of the state, where this kind of access can be harder to come by. Libraries provide a lifeline to this service, among others.
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Beyond internet, libraries have historically provided analog services that existed long before fiber optics, such as passport services, free concerts and assistance with voter registration. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, some branches expanded their offerings to include distribution of masks and test kits, and vaccine clinics.
Gentry County Library is located about 90 miles north of Kansas City, Missouri. Photo courtesy of Gentry County Library
Jon Karlen, a resident of St. Charles County, whose more than 400,000 residents are represented by Republican legislators, told the NewsHour that book bans and library funding cuts in the state feels like an effort to control distribution of information, which, he said, would hurt the state's most vulnerable residents in the end.
"Some people would say, 'well, if kids want to learn about that, it's all there. They just have to go home and Google it.' But as far into the Internet era as we are, not everybody in Missouri has that opportunity," he said.
Missouri Rep. Cody Smith, the House budget committee chair who proposed eliminating library funding, pointed to a recent lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union over a state law banning sexually explicit material from schools as justification for the cuts. Nearly 300 books have been removed from school libraries under the law, according to EducationWeek. The ACLU is suing the state alongside the Missouri Association of School Librarians and the Missouri Library Association.
During a committee hearing back in March, Smith, who was recognized by the Missouri Library Association in 2019 for his "contribution to the welfare of Missouri's libraries," restated his position.
"I don't think we should subsidize the attempts to overturn laws that we also created," Smith said in a budget meeting.
In a statement, the ACLU said the lawsuit, filed in February, is not funded by state-funded library dollars.
Smith did not respond to a request from the PBS NewsHour for comment.
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"The house budget committee's choice to retaliate against two private, volunteer-led organizations by punishing the patrons of Missouri's public libraries is abhorrent. As with every case when the ACLU represents someone, we are not charging our clients to challenge the unconstitutional book ban the legislature passed last year," the statement read.
Opponents of the proposed cuts argue the move is unconstitutional, pointing to a 1945 statute in the Missouri constitution declaring "the establishment and development of free public libraries and to accept the obligation of their support by the state and its subdivisions and municipalities in such manner as may be provided by law."
Rep. Peter Merideth, a ranking Democrat on the state house's budget committee who tried along with other party members to reinstate the funding, called the move to strip the funds "horrific, and borderline fascist."
"I hate using that word," he said. "But it sounds like a dystopian novel where a government issues a book ban, librarians are upset about it and try to exercise their rights and the government then de-funded public libraries, which is like the primary source of free information in our state."
Karlen said it is issues like these, among others, that show the state's lawmakers don't make decisions that align with what voters want.
"The electorate is paying attention and sometimes it takes a few cycles to catch up, but they're taking away vital and important services to the people that send them into power," he said.
Republican Sen. Lincoln Hough, who chairs the Senate Committee on appropriations, called the house's decision "shortsighted."
"Libraries provide access to reading materials for people that maybe don't have the means to order every book that they want," Hough said. "I know our community in Springfield, we depend on those libraries and those resources – and not just for reading material, but for Internet access for folks sometimes that are a little less socioeconomically disadvantaged."
Otter Bowman, president of the Missouri Library Association ,said beyond basic services, "the physical buildings become either a cool space or a warm space for our unhoused population, depending on the weather."
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Tamara King, a parent and resident of St. Charles County, told the NewsHour it feels like the state's residents should still be concerned even if the budget is not yet final.
"You start by taking away small things, right? And then you do that, you gain your support and then you go for the jugular, right? So that's what they did. They took away everything. Now, where are these kids supposed to go and learn and have those activities that involve books?" King said. "Books create imagination."
Like many lawmakers, Hough said he's been fielding calls from constituents since the decision was made.
Regina Cooper is the Executive Director of the Springfield-Greene County Library District, which sits in Hough's district and has worked in library systems for more than 40 years.
When she heard reduced funding could be in her library's future, she said she was concerned not only for her own library, but also for others dealing with even smaller budgets. .
"Money is tight and we have a lot of needs. And as you know, inflation continues to be a problem," Cooper said. "Every year our expenses go up."
The Springfield-Greene County Library District serves nearly 300,000 people in the surrounding area. Though the cuts are still being discussed, Cooper believes the decisions that state lawmakers have made make their message clear.
"I think it makes [community members] feel like that who they elected, don't really care about what their needs are because it's something they all know and use every day. To suddenly have the legislators say, 'no, we're not going to provide any more money for you,' that's very disappointing," she told the NewsHour.
Cooper said the move was a surprise to most librarians seeing that some politicians utilize library services themselves.
"I'm sure it would feel that way to me, even if I weren't the librarian[and] just a patron that [knows] this is a really important thing for me and my family. Why are you not supporting this?" she said.
The importance of libraries was made especially clear during the pandemic, Garrett said, when librarians had to get creative about how to fill needs that were at times more acute than ever.
During the height of the pandemic libraries across the country closed but some expanded their internet access, which residents used from parking lots. Photo courtesy of Gentry County Library
"During the pandemic when we weren't able to be open, our parking lot was full of cars because we expanded our wireless outreach beyond our walls so that people could get online to do homeschooling or….. they had to use their computers to access their schoolwork," Garrett said.
Bowman worries most about libraries like Garrett's.
"There are so many small libraries that are just barely getting by on a shoestring the way it is," Bowman said
Despite reassurance from lawmakers, Bowman said the future feels uncertain.
"Nationally, this is such a thing right now. There's an attack on public schools and there's an attack on public libraries and I would just really hate for us to continue to stay in the news for all the wrong reasons," she said.