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A majority of states reported cuts in state funding to public libraries and to the state library agencies that support libraries and statewide library programs. But even after making deep cuts, states continue to face large budget gaps, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. New shortfalls opened up in the budgets of at least 41 states for fiscal 2010, which in most states began July 1, 2009. And when the ALA surveyed members of the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies in November 2009, the public-library funding landscape continued to look bleak. Of states reporting decreases in local funding to public libraries, the majority were in the 5-10 percent range. Seventeen respondents reported they believed a majority of libraries in their states had sustained cuts in local funding in fiscal 2010, compared with fiscal 2009, while only two reported that a majority of libraries in their state had received funding increases.
State libraries also reported that state funding, usually in the form of state aid packages, had declined. Twenty four respondents reported cuts in state funding for public libraries from fiscal 2009 to fiscal 2010. Seven states and the District of Columbia do not provide state funding. Furthermore, cuts at the state level frequently were compounded by cuts at the local level and cuts in the state library agency budget, and there was a significant increase in the number of libraries reporting that they are open fewer hours each week