Funding would drop from $10 million to $6 million under a budget bill approved Tuesday, which officials say will have a major impact on libraries.
Read more: Local, State
ESCANABA -- The Michigan House has voted to cut state aid to local libraries by 40 percent. Funding would drop from $10 million to $6 million under a budget bill approved Tuesday, which officials say will have a major impact on libraries.
Officials say libraries relying solely on state aid and penal fines could close because of the cuts.
Funding for the Michigan E-Library, or MEL, is also in jeopardy. MEL is a multi-library network where libraries across the state can share resources on the Web.
Officials at the Escanaba Public Library say the loss of MEL could mean a lot to library users.
"This service is especially important to the U.P., where we're really geographically isolated and essentially opens up the all the libraries in the state to local users, but funding that is in jeopardy and that's a big concern to us," said Carolyn Stacey, Library Director.
The library sees over 104,000 people come through its doors each year.
