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Unfortunately SB167 passed in the House of Representatives late on Wednesday night by a vote of 52-37.  You will notice it was barely a majority of the House and 11 representatives didn’t vote.  Still it received enough support to pass.  Since the House made a minor change, the bill had to go back to the Senate where it was approved again by a vote of 25 to 11.  It has been sent to the Governor where he will decide to sign it into law or veto it and send it back to the Legislature where they would have to override the veto.  Our Advocacy Committee has been in contact with the Governor’s office to discuss a possible veto.  However, even if the Governor vetoes the bill, it requires only a majority vote by both houses of the legislature to override.  So in all likelihood, the bill will become law.  However, if the Public Library Advocacy Committee sees an opportunity for us to make a difference, I’ll let you know how the Friends might help.

It was mentioned during the House committee hearing that representatives were receiving many calls.  I’m sure this had an impact in picking up votes in our favor and in the number of representatives that didn’t vote at all.   I can’t thank you enough for getting word out to your Friends and to library supporters.  There are a lot of questions about how this new process is going to work and a lot we don’t know at this time.  If you have questions, please let me know and we’ll try to get an answer.  We’ll keep in contact with you as this plays out.  One thing for sure – our public libraries are going to need strong Friends groups more than ever before! I expect we’ll have even more opportunities to support our libraries in the future.

Thanks again for your work on behalf of our libraries!