Brooklyn Public Libraries Checked Out from City Budget
Originally Published: May 17, 2019
by: Janelle Bradley
Libraries are the cultural and educational centers of a community. You’re not just checking out books anymore. You’re studying to become a citizen. You’re learning a new language. You have a new mixtape coming out and you need affordable studio time. However, new proposed budgets are limiting these resources.
On March 14th Linda E. Johnson President and CEO of the Brooklyn Public Library, sent out an email to the public asking for their signatures in advocating for libraries and to speak out against city budget cuts. In the email, she claims that the demand for the libraries is soaring and that libraries are “essential to the fabric of Brooklyn neighborhoods”.
Libraries are generally known to be a place to check out materials. The Brooklyn Public Library has an abundant amount of resources for New Yorker’s that go beyond the simple process of checking out a book. The library provides many services for immigration, business, and careers, homelessness amongst many others. Their events and classes calendar can be found on their website.
What allowed for the Public Library to become defunded by the city? New York City’s annual budget is negotiated annually between the New York City Council and the Mayor.
The Budget Broken Down
The budget itself consists of three aspects; Expense, Capital and Revenue. Expense is the cost to run and maintain the city, Capital is the long term investment into the city such as infrastructure and public facilities and Revenue is the outline of money expected from taxes and determines the maximum amount in the expense budget. “The budget itself is a constantly changing thing, because of many different factors,” says Raul Contreras who is the Deputy Press Officer at the Mayor’s Office. “There may be an additional need that we identify as we develop the budget or as we work through the year and we’ll reflect those changes in the November Modification so we will publish documents to reflect those changes.”
The Process
The budget constantly evolves throughout the year as explained by Contreras and it starts off with the Preliminary budget at the beginning of the year which is the proposed by the Mayor and it is the ideal budget that the city tries to follow with its core values in mind. It is then followed up by the Executive budget and it updates the initial budget based on the Councils hearings and concerns for the budget. The Adoptive budget is the final budget agreement between the Council and the Mayor and the Modification budget allows for last-minute identifications that need funding. The City Council has the budget process explained and has its hearings on record for the public on their site. “The way we prioritize things is that ensuring New Yorkers are receiving programs that they rely on, especially programs that make New York City fair. Things like ‘Pre-K for All’ and ‘3-k for All’ ensuring that parents are able to put their children in early learning educational settings. We certainly hear advocates and also council members that advocate for these sort of things.”
What’s at Stake
On average the Brooklyn Public Library spends around $130 million a year and around 80% of those funds go to the staff that maintains the sixty branches throughout the borough that orchestrates the many programs that many citizens take part of. The rest of the budget goes to the expansion of the library’s collection.
There are many programs that help enrich the lives of New Yorkers. The Brooklyn Public Library collectively provides programs and workshops that help immigrants prepare for the United States Citizenship Exam, give homework help to students, hosts conversation groups that allow for people to learn other languages, teach the basics of Microsoft word amongst a plethora of other resources that people can take advantage of for free.
“This organization and the City as a whole hasn’t really participated in a budget reduction process in many years,” says Karen Sheehan who is the Vice President of Finance at the Central Branch. “I think from a perspective of should the library systems receive a budget reduction at this time? I’m not sure that the libraries would be the first place that I would be looking to achieve savings. The libraries are always available to be a platform for civic engagement and lifetime learning, libraries are doing so much more than they’ve ever been asked to do.”
There are plans to open up Brooklyn’s first new branches in thirty-six years according to Johnson’s email. Sheehan states that there is an annual operating budget that is negotiated with the city and that is where they will feel the reduction in funding if it transpires come July 1st. “We are moving full steam ahead on those new construction projects…where we are vulnerable is when we are bringing those new libraries online when we are ready to open them. If we don’t receive funding, the operating budget for the staff that is required to operate the new libraries then we’ll have to look at staffing throughout the system all sixty branches and figure out a way in which to distribute our finite resources in order to operate the new branches.”
Marilyn Daniels is a regular library goer and recently attended a Spanish Conversational Group. “When you are learning a language, it is best to learn it by speaking it. It was a conversational class so you study on your own time and you come in and you practice what you studied. The instructor gives you examples and lessons so that you can improve your conversational Spanish. Of course, the library provides excellent service you can’t put a price on it.”
As of now, the proposed cuts are not set in stone although a decision would have to be reached by July 1st of this year. If you would like to advocate for the Brooklyn Public Library you can send a letter to your city leader through the Library’s website. You can also see coverage on this topic on Instagram.
