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When cuts hit home
Sometimes the decisions made by the Virginia and U.S. governments can seem very far away indeed, but every once in a while something happens that has a very tangible effect in Rappahannock County. Two budget-cutting proposals by the Wilder Administration are recent examples.
Gov. Wilder's proposed budget recommends that state aid to public libraries throughout Virginia be reduced from $10 million each year to $6 million in each of the next two years, a 50 percent reduction.
Rappahannock County Library would receive in each of the next two fiscal years $6,488, down from $12,976 in this fiscal year. State aid makes up 27 percent of Rappahannock County Library’s total operating budget, and state aid pays for almost all of the books purchased by the library. A portion of state aid also pays for salaries and supplies needed to catalog and check books out of the library.
Public libraries are used even more during economic hard times such as these. Job seekers and business people rely upon the library for current periodicals and reference information that they could not otherwise afford, and families trying to meet tighter budgets check out books on low-cost menus and do-it-yourself car and home repairs.
Usage of the Rappahannock County Library is at an alltime high. Since moving into the new building there has been a 66 percent increase in book circulation and a 38 percent increase in library usage. Clearly this is no time to cut its funds.
The other budget issue that would hurt the county involves the Virginia Commission for the Arts (VCA). Not content to simply slash its hinds, as he did last year, this time around Gov. Wilder set about to abolish the agency, hoping to “merge” it with th Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond. When the National Endowment for the Arts threatened to pull its $600,000 grant if the VCA is abolished, the governor retreated, instead suggesting he would maintain a one-person VCA staff for the sole purpose of getting that half-million dollars from Washington.
Three years ago $28,000 of VCA money came to Rappahannock to support the Middle Street Gallery and Artists Cooperative, the Ki Theatre, the Rappahannock Association foi the Arts and the Community, the Child Care and Learning Center and numerous individual schoolteachers’ projects. Two years ago the state funded almost $30,000 in Rappahannock projects, but when Gov. Wilder gutted the VCA last year that amount dropped to $8,200. Now there’s some question as to whether any money will be coming here at all next year.
Let your representatives in Richmond (Sens. Kevin Miller or Ed Robb, and Del. Jerry Wood) know how you feel.
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