APLS budget cut nine percent despite recommended policy changes

May 21—The Alabama Public Library Service will be operating on a limited budget after the Alabama Legislature approved a near 9 percent budget cut despite what board members believed to be a "good—faith effort" to adhere to lawmakers' demands.

A total of $15 million of the recently approved $11 billion Education Trust Fund was allotted to the APLS, the majority of which provides funding for outside programs. Gov. Kay Ivey proposed $4.1 million be allotted for APLS operations, but May 16, board chairman Ronald Snider said the Alabama House of Representatives cut the 2025 operating budget by 18 percent. The Senate restored half of those funds resulting in a reduction of roughly $350,000.

"It's going to cause tremendous harm to this agency which only has an abridged staff of 40 people," Snider said. "I think it's a tragedy in terms of what this agency does and what we are asked to do more and more of."

APLS board member and ALGOP chairman John Wahl agreed with Snider's disappointment in the budget cuts and said he had petitioned his party's lawmakers to reconsider their positions to no avail.

"I definitely worked hard to communicate with everyone I could on the importance of this board and the value it provides to local communities," Wahl said.

When reached by phone on Friday, Wahl said any personnel or program cuts made in response to the reduced budget would be strictly administrative and would not affect local libraries.

Gov. Kay Ivey proposed APLS policy changes to restrict access to materials that were deemed "sexually inappropriate" in a letter addressed to director Nancy Pack in October 2023, in response to a series of statewide book challenges from conservative "parental rights" organizations largely centered on the removal of books containing LGBTQ+ content or characters.

Ivey's recommendations sparked controversy and requests for a 90-day public comment period before the proposed policy changes were finalized. Alabama lawmakers included stipulations within the ETF stating that local libraries would be ineligible for state funding unless policies were updated in accordance to the governor's proposals.

The board approved strengthened policy changes May 16. Wahl presented a rewritten amendment originally offered by board member Amy Minton which stemmed from proposals from the concervative "parental rights" organization, Eagle Forum of Alabama.

Wahl said he believed the changes brought more clarity and guidance to Ivey's proposal, which many had suggested were overly vague. Wahl's amendments includes:

— Approve written guidelines that ensure library sections designated for minors younger than the age of 18 remain free of material containing obscenity, sexually explicit or other material deemed inappropriate for children or youth. Age-appropriate materials regarding religion, history, biology or human anatomy should not be construed to be against this rule.

— Approve written selection criteria for minors that prevents the purchase or otherwise acquiring of any material advertised for consumers younger than the age of 18 which contain obscenity, sexually explicit or other material deemed inappropriate for children or youth. Age appropriate materials regarding religion, history, biology or human anatomy should not be construed to be against this rule.

— Approve written guidelines that establish library cards for minors younger than the age of 18 must require parental approval before a minor's card is permitted to checkout materials from the library's adult sections.

The policy also now requires "materials selection policies, including selection criteria for minors and how they are safeguarded from sexually explicit or other material deemed inappropriate for children or youth."

"One of the big issues for me with the APLS has been that we listen to constituents. One of the key aspects of that is that we safeguard our children's sections and that there are not sexually explicit materials that children can accidentally run into. I think the board accomplished that," Wahl said.

Wahl said "sexually explicit" would be defined using Alabama's anti-obscenity statutes and local library boards and the APLS would determine what constituted "other materials deemed inappropriate for children."

Snider said he had believed these efforts had been in accordance with lawmakers wishes which made the budget cuts a particularly disheartening end to what had already been a turbulent year for public libraries in the state.

"The tragedy is that we had recommended the changes that the governor requested. We thought we were being responsive to those requests," Snider said. "Nine percent is a big cut that will have long range negative effects to what we can provide."