OHIO ELECTIONS Legislature candidates agree on need to maintain libraries

Maintaining library funding will be a struggle, representative says.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
WARREN -- With the state facing a budget crisis, Democratic incumbents in the Ohio legislature and the Republicans challenging them for their seats in the Nov. 2 election agree that libraries are a high priority.
"I certainly would hope that we could increase [library funding] if the economy continues to grow," said State Rep. Sandra Harwood, D-65th, of Niles. "The cost of everything you're doing continues to rise, and I definitely would be advocating for doing anything I could to support the libraries and my local governments," she said.
"It really was a victory for us to get a freeze," as opposed to a cut in library funding in the current state budget, she added.
"The library is an ongoing educational opportunity for everyone. Libraries are important. Libraries should be funded. And the General Assembly has to balance what we would have in a perfect society with what the public is willing to pay for," said Harwood's Republican challenger, Don Johnson of Liberty.
"The way to fund everything and to fund everything properly is to have a growing and vibrant economy. That should be the focus of state government," he said.
Forum
The occasion was a library issues forum Monday evening at the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library, which featured as panelists incumbent local legislators and their challengers. About 40 people attended, many of them librarians and library board members.
Most of Ohio's public libraries derive most of their funds from the state income tax, said Jan Vaughn, public relations coordinator for the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library. For the Warren-Trumbull library, the state income tax provides 75 percent of the operating budget.
In recent years, the state has frozen library funding at 2001 levels, forcing libraries to reduce staff, materials acquisition and hours of service, said Virginia Sharp March, director of the Harbor-Topky Memorial Library in Ashtabula.
"We're going to struggle and fight to hold onto the levels you have now," said State Rep. Daniel Sferra, D-64th, of Warren, referring to himself and his fellow local Democratic legislators. However, he advised the librarians, "I think its just about impossible to think that there'll be an increase in your funding levels because of the way the deficit looks." Sferra said the state may be facing a deficit as high as $5 billion next year.
"I certainly would not support a cut in this part of the budget and would be supportive of a reasonable increase because I do feel this is a vital service that the state needs to step in and provide," said his Republican challenger, Randy Law of Warren.
Dann
"Of all of the local government pieces, I am the most confident that you have done your homework and laid the groundwork so that they [the libraries] won't be on the chopping block," said State Sen. Marc Dann, D-32nd, of Liberty. "You may even be in a position to not suffer the freeze again," he said, complimenting librarians for being articulate and persuasive lobbyists.
State officials should keep the promise they made in 1971 that, if the state income tax is kept in place, libraries and local governments would benefit from that tax, he said.
"I'll do whatever I can to be certain that we don't have the continuation of the freeze, and certainly not a cut," said his Republican challenger, Gary L. Pasqualone of Geneva. "I will do whatever it takes in Columbus to make certain that the Ohio libraries continue to be No. 1 in this country as we have been for years," he said.