April 1, 2010

South Boston Online received a Letter to the Editor this week.  We thought that everything had been said about the current City of Boston proposal to curtail Boston Public Library services or even close six or more branches outright.  One of these is the Washington Village Branch on Columbia Road 

But the letter (quite rightly) emphasizes our children as the key argument for keeping this library branch open.  In addition, the Washington Village Branch has been eloquently described by Andrew Ryan of The Boston Globe, most recently in his March 24 article. We’ll just add our voice to what has already been said.

The amount of tax money, state and local, needed to maintain all current Library services is less than $5 million.  That’s about two-tenths of one percent of Boston’s budget this year (.002 of the total).  Yet, the State just lost a chance to qualify for federal education funds from the Obama administration, and the City blinked at millions of dollars in cost savings from requiring its existing retirees to enroll in Medicare. 

Do you see a major disconnect here?  Listen to what’s being said by the citizens of our sister city of South Boston, Virginia, which is suffering even more severe budget problems:  “Protect education, and develop a thorough, comprehensive financial plan!”  We hope our own officials are listening to the same kind of dissatisfaction that is sweeping our City and Commonwealth.

The usual excuses no longer apply – “We can’t find the money”, “You can’t balance the budget on the backs of the workers.”  However it’s done, it’s better than “balancing the budget on the backs of our children”.

The Washington Village Branch Library must remain open.