Trump’s cuts to California State Library lead to hiring freeze and furloughs

Last week we chronicled the impact of federal funding cuts on public health employees in California. This week, we’re looking into the California State Library, where staffers recently learned a key funding source was cut by the Trump administration.

President Donald Trump moved to all but eliminate the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency that provides grants to museums and libraries across the country, through executive order last month.

The federal government withheld the last 21% of a $15.7 million grant that the California State Library was slated to receive this fiscal year, Jeff Barbosa, a spokesperson for the library, said in an email. It’s not clear if the state library will receive funding from IMLS in the upcoming fiscal year, beginning July 1, which would “generally be in the same ballpark of the previous grant.”

The state library isn’t counting on receiving those millions from the federal government in the coming months, Barbosa said.

As a result, the state library instituted a hiring and spending freeze and furloughed temporary help, which included a retired annuitant and 21 student workers. Barbosa said the state library is not considering a layoff plan at this time. At the California State Library, 34 permanent positions are supported by federal funds, he added.

“The threat of layoffs, furloughs, and hiring freezes due to the loss of IMLS funding is a wake-up call,” Anica Walls, the president of SEIU Local 1000, which represents employees at the state library, said in a statement. “Federal budget cuts don’t just impact Washington — they hit working families and public services right here in California.”

Walls encouraged lawmakers to restore the funding.

Federal funds make up 28% of the state library’s entire ongoing budget, though the majority of that money goes to local public libraries and similar institutions in the form of grants. The state library has already distributed grants to local libraries this year, Barbosa said, but if federal funding doesn’t come later this year a number of programs are in jeopardy.

Though not an exhaustive list, some of the programs that could be affected included:

• The Braille and Talking Book Library, which provides audio and braille books to blind, visually impaired or dyslexic Californians in nearly 50 counties.

• Local public libraries’ Early Learning Play Spaces and Storytimes, which help children from low-income families develop fine motor, emotional and language skills.

• A California history preservation project, known as California Revealed, which provides online access to digitized cultural artifacts.

Earlier this month, Attorney General Rob Bonta and several of his peers from other states filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump, attempting to restore the funding. Bonta argued the Trump administration unlawfully attempted to shut down IMLS and other congressionally established agencies.