Public library advocates are voicing concerns about spending cuts and possibly even censorship of books as the Kentucky General Assembly advances a bill to give county politicians control of libraries' governing boards.
"This has the potential to turn local libraries into a political entity when we have tried really hard to keep libraries non-political and to serve everybody in our communities regardless of political beliefs or personal philosophies or creeds," said Jean Ruark, executive director of the Paul Sawyier Public Library in Frankfort and advocacy chairwoman for the Kentucky Public Library Association.
The Senate on Friday voted 20-to-10 to pass Senate Bill 167 and send it to the House.
Under the bill, county judge-executives would appoint the members of library boards in most Kentucky counties, and county fiscal courts would get to vote on library spending for capital projects of $1 million or more. The library systems in Louisville and Lexington are organized differently and would not be affected by the bill.
The Senate amended the bill Friday to remove a section abolishing all library boards statewide on Jan. 1, instead allowing current board members to serve out their terms before the local county judge-executive replaces them. Another amendment raised the amount that libraries could spend independently from $500,000 to $1 million.
National censorship debate
County politicians would take control of Kentucky libraries just as a national debate is heating up again over what sorts of books belong on the shelves of public libraries and school libraries.
The American Library Association issued a statement last November tallying "155 unique censorship incidents" reported by its members in just six months, calling it "unprecedented." The Idaho House of Representatives this month approved a measure to allow librarians to be jailed or fined for allowing minors to check out "harmful" materials.
The supporters of Kentucky's Senate Bill 167 say library boards levy property taxes and therefore need oversight from elected officials. Presently, the library boards essentially fill their own seats by sending lists of eligible nominees to the judge-executive by way of the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives.
The Senate bill would let elected county leaders control libraries by picking board members on their own and blocking major projects, such as renovations or new buildings, if the fiscal courts opposed it.
At a Senate committee hearing on March 2, Lawrence County Judge-Executive Phil Carter said he has argued with his local library board over millions of dollars it saved in the bank; its property tax rate that rivaled the county's; and an addition for the library that he believed was unnecessary and too expensive.
"It was a disaster," Carter told the Senate committee. "We just need some oversight."
Adding a political twist, the Levisa Lazer in Lawrence County reported earlier this month that the construction manager on the library expansion is Carter's opponent in the Republican primary for judge-executive in May.
Answer to the taxpayers
Library boards have taxing authority and can accumulate millions of dollars in reserves, and if they're not elected directly, then they should answer to someone who does face taxpayers on Election Day, said Sen. Phillip Wheeler, R-Pikeville, the bill's sponsor.
"In many ways, the current taxing districts are unaccountable to the voters at large. The way the boards are currently set up, the board basically recommends its own replacements," Wheeler said.
"I think the vast majority of our library boards do function well. But there are some that don't," Wheeler said. "And when you run into a bad situation ... there's really nothing that county government can do to clean that up."
In his own testimony to the committee, Dave Schroeder, executive director of the Kenton County Public Library, said the legislature already has capped the amounts that taxing districts like library boards can raise without fiscal court approval. On their own, Schroeder said, libraries only can claim the "compensating rate," yielding them the same revenue as the previous year.
Opponents 'very, very scared'
The concern with Wheeler's bill is that it could bring divisive partisan politics into previously independent libraries, critics say.
Kentucky's library boards were established using the current model 70 years ago "to keep us non-partisan," Schroeder told the committee. "We are here to make sure that everyone who comes into a public library in Kentucky has access to information that they need."
Sen. Karen Berg, D-Louisville, voted against the bill Friday. Speaking on the Senate floor, Berg said this is not the right time to let "political bodies" decide how public libraries should operate.
"Librarians and people who use the library are very, very scared," Berg said. "At this point in our society, where people are talking about what books we can and can't have on the shelves, I want to keep these decisions out of the political sphere as much as possible."
Speaking to the Herald-Leader on Friday, Ruark, the Frankfort library director, said her organization will try to defeat the bill in the House. However, she added, the reception so far has not been encouraging.
"They have not been very sympathetic," Ruark said. "They talk to us about accountability and they say there needs to be oversight in how our decisions are made. They treat us as though we don't really know what we're talking about."
