Dear Concerned Citizen;

Thank you for your email regarding your views on Governor Strickland’s proposed funding cuts for Ohio’s public libraries. I appreciate you contacting my office regarding this particular matter and it is always a pleasure to hear from Ohioans on the issues that concern them the most.

I would like to emphasize that I fully support Ohio’s libraries. In fact, when the Governor first introduced his budget with funding cuts for libraries, I along with many of my colleagues worked successfully to have the funding restored.

During the budget process my republican colleagues and I offered nearly 200 amendments to the budget of which two were accepted, all others were tabled. One of the ones tabled has also been offered as a stand-alone bill that I have co-sponsored. H.B. 25 would reorganize the executive branch of the state government offering a savings of more than $1 billion annually; it’s roughly $2.5 billion over the biennium. This proposal alone will nearly cover the hole in the budget.

The budget remains in the hands of a six member conference committee. At this point, it is impossible to predict what will be included in the final version of the budget once it emerges out of the conference committee; however, I have already expressed our concerns regarding library funding to the members of the conference committee. I’m anticipating a final version of the budget soon and will continue to work on behalf of Ohio’s libraries.

Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with this decision by Governor Strickland. My office has literally received thousands of emails and dozens of calls with regards to the library funding cut proposal and I am in the process of documenting all of them.

Best Regards,

Jarrod B. Martin
State Representative
Ohio House of Representatives