Photo: Interim Queens Library President and CEO Bridget Quinn-Carey. Photo Courtesy of Queens Library
The Big Apple budget dance is a familiar yet fickle foxtrot, defined by the push and pull, give and take, surge and sacrifice dynamic of its partners.
The three city library systems—Queens, Brooklyn, New York—find themselves back on the floor this year for what might be a tricky two-step.
A united front—Tri-Li—the systems are not, as many agencies and organizations are in the weeks between the presentation of the Executive Budget and the June 30 deadline, asking for more money. They just want the administration to restore what the libraries used to have, before 2009, when the city began successive years of slashing the libraries’ fiscal plans to the tune of $65 million.
This year’s Executive Budget calls for $314 million for libraries, down from $323 million last year.
“We’re really pushing for that full restoration [of $65 million], so that we can restore services,” said Bridget Quinn-Carey, interim president and CEO of the Queens Library. “People need us now more than ever.”
Quinn-Carey, who took over last year for the embattled Tom Galante, said that the programs that so many branches offer—English as a Second Language classes, workforce training, older adult services—suffer when budgets are cut.
“We really help people help themselves,” she noted before adding that Queens was forced to turn away 1,000 ESL students last year because of budget restrictions.
Quinn-Carey quickly pointed out that the City Council “has been very supportive” in the fight for the restoration of funding. She also noted how de Blasio “has been supportive on the capital side, which is much appreciated.”
“Capital is so important,” Quinn-Carey continued, “because most of our buildings were built when populations were smaller. We need to expand those branches.” She pointed to Corona, Rego Park and Willets Point as prime examples.
But as she and the Brooklyn and New York library leaders have been speaking with de Blasio and administration officials over the past couple of months, they have been pushing for the restoration of their role in the city “as a valuable partner.”
A return to 2008 levels, Quinn-Carey explained, would mean bringing back six-day service to most branches. Right now, only 22 borough libraries are open on Saturday; more than 40 are not.
“For a place like Queens, not having Saturdays is a big loss,” she said. “But if we get the funding restoration, the hours return.”
More hours means the ability to accommodate customers.
“Program attendance is up dramatically across the borough,” Quinn-Carey said.
The city Office of Management and Budget has noted that the vast majority of cuts to libraries were made during the Bloomberg era.
“The de Blasio administration has made an unprecedented investment in our city’s public libraries—tripling capital commitments compared to the last Ten Year Strategy, while increasing and baselining operating funds,” OMB spokeswoman Amy Spitalnick said last week in a New York Daily News report.
By Michael V. Cusenza michael@theforumnewsgroup.com
