The House Committee on Ways and Means will release its FY 2017 budget recommendation on Wednesday, April 13th at noon.

What you can do: As soon as the budget is announced, the Massachusetts Library Association (MLA) Legislative Committee will contact you and other library supporters with the names of amendment sponsors. At that time, you will be asked to contact your legislators in the House immediately and urge them to sign on as co-sponsors to the library amendments and vote to make state funding for libraries a priority.

You need to act fast: House Members will have until 5pm on Friday, April 15th to file and sign on to co-sponsor amendments. MBLC Commissioners are working with legislators to get amendments filed as soon as possible, hopefully that afternoon. The sooner an amendment is filed, the more time it leaves for other legislators to sign on as co-sponsors. The timing is very tight.

Your advocacy will be the deciding factor as to whether or not we are successful in generating enough support to increase funding for the library budget lines. Watch for an email on April 13th!

Numbers make a difference. Let’s set a goal of getting at least 10 people from each community to contact their legislators! Thank you for your help. More to info to come tomorrow!