Here in Hudson, we just successfully passed a voter referendum to increase the City of Hudson’s support for our library for the first time in a decade. By a better than 60% margin voters here affirmed the importance of the library in our daily life.

Now we are faced with cuts at the state level that will make it more difficult to sustain the library here and across the state.

From the New York Library Association:

This will be the fifth cut in less than two years and will bring Library Aid down from $102 million in 2007 to $84.5 million in 2010. These cuts combined total an $18 million or 18% reduction in funding for library services. Libraries are part of our safety net—they are essential to life long learning, jobs and opportunity, quality of life and community empowerment.

Sign the Online Petition to Support Public Libraries

There is an online petition you can sign to support funding for public libraries in the upcoming state budget: