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Ad Lib: Advocacy for Libraries

September 25, 2008

Senate Overrides a Mixed Bag for Illinois Libraries

As you may know, the Illinois state Senate reconvened this week to vote on a couple of the governor’s vetoes — HB 4527 and SB 2321 — with mixed results for the library community. As ILA reports in ILA Update #13 (not yet on their website):

The Illinois Senate just overrode the governor’s amendatory veto of HB 4527 increasing the equalization and school grants formulas.  The senate override passed on a vote 55 to 0.  As the Illinois House of Representatives has already overridden the governor’s veto, this bill will now become law as originally passed in the form ILA supported. [emphasis in original]  Just to be clear, the governor’s suggested changes that would have mandated minimum operating hours for libraries will not become law.  Senator Watson (R-51, Greenville) gave an impassioned speech in favor of local library control and opposing the governor’s proposed operating hours mandate.

…

The Illinois Senate just defeated the motion to override the governor’s veto of [SB 2321] the county law library fee increase bill.  The override motion fell two votes short of the super majority needed to override.  The vote was 34 to override, 21 against the ride override.  This bill now appears dead for this year and would have to be resurrected next session.

Sponsored by Senator Donne E. Trotter (D-17, Chicago), the bill would have allowed county boards to authorize an increase in county law library fees (now, $13) of not more than (i) $18 in 2008, (ii) $19 in 2009, and (iii) $21 in 2010 and thereafter.

If either of these votes impacts your libraries for the better, or if you just want to be a voice of support to the library community, why not give your legislators a call to let them know that their vote is important to you. You can find out how your senator voted on SB 2321 at the ILGA site, and of course you can always get your legislators’ contact info from NSLS’s legislative directory.

posted by Alan at 9:18 am | Comments (0)

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