City Leaders Approve Budget Despite Concerns About Library System
Demonstrators stand outside Birmingham's city hall while council members discuss the city's budget.
Protesters who have been fighting to save Birmingham’s public libraries say they feel ignored by city officials. Dozens of demonstrators gathered outside city hall Tuesday night, just hours before council members approved Mayor Randall Woodfin’s proposed city budget for 2021. The budget includes nearly 250 furloughs, with more than half coming from the city’s library system.
The demonstrators called for city leaders to “fund books, not bullets.”
“We are spending $11.2 million more on our police department while cutting almost that, if not more, from the Birmingham Public Library system,” said Jamie Foster, a member of People’s Budget Birmingham.
Woodfin said cuts to the library are necessary to make up a $63 million shortfall due to the coronavirus pandemic. During a budget work session prior to the council meeting, City Councilor Steven Hoyt voiced his frustration .
“I know propaganda when I see it,” Hoyt said. “Because if, in fact, you’re going down the road of temporary then why so many layoffs?”
The city council passed the $412 million dollar budget with language that calls for furloughing more than 150 library employees. Foster said that hurts the poor, as well as young people because librarians offer an essential service to the community.
“They help as job counselors and tutors,” he said. “They provide a direct service, not only catalogs and archives. It provides so many resources, not just for those who are disenfranchised, but for cultural memory here in Birmingham.”
Librarian Alice Speake, of the Irondale Public Library, said library closures in Birmingham affect the entire Jefferson County Library Cooperative.
“There’s going to be a whole surge of people from other libraries coming into Irondale,” Speake said. “All I can think about is what are the logistics going to be for when all these other patrons have to move from their libraries to a new one.”
The Birmingham Public Library’s downtown location has reopened to the public, but city officials say that is the only location open at this time. A few others will continue to offer curbside service.
Why haven’t Kansas and Alabama — among other holdouts — expanded access to Medicaid?
Only 10 states have not joined the federal program that expands Medicaid to people who are still in the "coverage gap" for health care
Once praised, settlement to help sickened BP oil spill workers leaves most with nearly nothing
Thousands of ordinary people who helped clean up after the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico say they got sick. A court settlement was supposed to help compensate them, but it hasn’t turned out as expected.
Q&A: How harm reduction can help mitigate the opioid crisis
Maia Szalavitz discusses harm reduction's effectiveness against drug addiction, how punitive policies can hurt people who need pain medication and more.
The Gulf States Newsroom is hiring a Community Engagement Producer
The Gulf States Newsroom is seeking a curious, creative and collaborative professional to work with our regional team to build up engaged journalism efforts.
Gambling bills face uncertain future in the Alabama legislature
This year looked to be different for lottery and gambling legislation, which has fallen short for years in the Alabama legislature. But this week, with only a handful of meeting days left, competing House and Senate proposals were sent to a conference committee to work out differences.
Alabama’s racial, ethnic health disparities are ‘more severe’ than other states, report says
Data from the Commonwealth Fund show that the quality of care people receive and their health outcomes worsened because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
