Hi everyone,
The New Orleans Public Libraries could soon face huge budget cuts. Act NOW to stop this! We need folks to:
- Email and call your City Council person’s office TODAY and tell them you OPPOSE "Agenda Item 61" on the "Regular Agenda" of Thursday's Council meeting - the special election regarding the General Millage. Tell them you think the entirety of the millage should go towards the New Orleans public libraries and that the redistribution of these funds would lead to huge and unsustainable cuts to the library budget. Find your City Council person’s contact info here.
- Submit a “public comment” before 9 AM TOMORROW. We need folks to write public comments opposing Item 61 on the Regular Agenda. You can submit your comment here, and it will be read aloud to Council on Thursday! In your comments to the Council, tell them:
- Don't cut the library's funding or reduce the millage
- Explain why the library is important to you personally.
-
Present it as a cut immediately.
- Advocate for the library's services immediately.
- Make it personal and variable, because they'll zone out otherwise.
Then, share the link and your statements on your social media. Spread the word! We only have until 9 AM on Thursday to put a stop to this, or else we’ll be fighting these cuts for a long time.
More details below:
Workers are facing an escalating crisis as the COVID-19 pandemic hits city budgets. As we have seen throughout this crisis, workers across the country have been thrown into turmoil because of massive job loss and closures. Now, in New Orleans, Mayor Cantrell is looking for ways to shore up support among the business interests by drastically cutting city services and laying off public employees.
New Orleans Public Libraries (NOPL) is currently funded by two millages - a supplemental millage and a general millage; the general millage is up for renewal in 2021 and is subject of current efforts to cut taxes, cut back library services, and redirect money from the library to other city projects.
The general millage - expires in 2021. A vote to replace or renew the millage will occur on Dec. 5, 2020. The City Council and Mayor are proposing a "rededication" of it to other city services. The updated millage proposal is also a cut in funding - from 4.000 mils to 0.987 mils. If this 0.987 mil proposal passes the Council on Thursday, Aug 20, it will appear on the Dec. 5 ballot. If the voters approve this millage, it will be a $7.5 million cut to the library, while also shifting $1.5 million to early childhood education initiatives (i.e. taking more away from the library, but no clear mandate on what those initiatives will look like, how they will be staffed, etc). This would be ~40% cut to the NOPL annual budget.
If the public rejects the 0.987 millage on Dec. 5, then NOPL gets none of it, and that could lead to a $10-10.5 million cut to the library, or ~50% of its annual budget.
According to library Executive Director Dr. Gabriel Morley, “Clearly, the library will not be able to operate at its current level with a 40 to 50 percent budget cut.”
The results of the Dec. 5 vote will go into effect immediately on Jan. 1, 2021.
While the Chief Administrative Officer Gilbert Montano claims that the library system will not close any branches, there are no guarantees after the millage passes in this form. Also, 75% of library funding goes toward personnel, meaning some form of layoffs will be the consequence of this.
This is an unconscionable act to perpetrate against public employees during a pandemic, and it will throw many of us into further uncertainty as millions of Americans search for jobs, ways to pay rent, and struggle to even get benefits.
We need to stop this proposal. Please submit a public statement and email your City Councilmember TODAY.
This is the time to act.
Solidarity,
New Orleans DSA Local Council
