The Kossuth County Board of Supervisors recently scaled back funding for county libraries by as much as 70%. Board members were severely criticized by both members of the public and library workers for both the cuts and not informing the county public libraries about the cuts until after official publication of the new fiscal year budget.
The decision to cut the library budgets came on February 22nd. Notification wasn’t until almost mid-April. Board Chairman Kyle Stecker says budget cuts would have to be made to restore funding for the county’s libraries.
Stecker carefully explained to the gathered people at the public hearing that the board cannot change what has been already published.
He also explained that the board would have to wait until the new budget was in force at the beginning of the fiscal year in order to make any changes.
The board did not set a date and passed a 70% reduction in funding from the rural basic fund to libraries in the county.
