Lehigh Valley librarians say they’re concerned about the state budget impasse and the Trump administration’s effort to dismantle an agency that distributes money to libraries nationwide, and what it could mean for services for area residents.
“The cuts and threatened cuts to library funding creates a very difficult future for libraries,” said Christi Buker, executive director for the Pennsylvania Library Association.
The last two years, Pennsylvania has allocated $70.47 million for the public library subsidy, which pays for a significant portion of local libraries’ expenses. But the 2025-26 budget — which was due June 30 — remains stuck in an impasse between Gov. Josh Shapiro, the Democratic-led House and the Republican-led Senate.
Buker said the association asked the state for an additional $6.2 million next year, “as we are still working to get the public library subsidy back up to the $75 million we had in 2001 and 2008.”
“Continuing to fund libraries at the same dollar amount every year represents cuts to libraries as our expenses continue to grow every year,” she said. “The risk and stress on library services and staff takes a toll. … With the extra volatility in federal and state budgets this year, it causes significant concern for the sustainability of our libraries and particularly rural and smaller libraries.”
Local librarians say they’re frustrated by the delay, but not necessarily surprised.
“I’ve worked in Pennsylvania libraries for a long time, so I’ve been through a lot of budget turmoils,” Bethlehem Area Public Library Executive Director Josh Berk said. “It’s like part of the job for almost my whole career.”
But that doesn’t make it easier. Bethlehem Area Public Library gets about 15%-20% of its $3 million budget from the state.
“The instability is problematic,” he said.
Northampton Area Public Library Director Veronica Laroche echoed Berk’s sentiments. “I find anything related to funding frustrating in the sense that for libraries it’s never as consistent as we want it to be.”
That uncertainty is compounded by the Trump administration’s effort to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a federal agency that provides grants to numerous libraries every year. The plan faces several lawsuits. Trump’s 2026 budget proposal would also defund the agency, but House and Senate committees this week approved a nearly $292 million budget for it.
“This is the first time we’ve seen this at the federal level,” Berk said. “It is a new source of stress and concern. I hate to say it, but we almost expect delays with the state budget. It seems like it happens as often as not.”
The Bethlehem library gets a relatively small amount of federal money from the institute, which provides a grant that helps pay for library software.
Buker said eliminating the agency would cause chaos.
“We will lose support for critical library advisory staff within the Office of Commonwealth Libraries, statewide resources for children and adults through PowerLibrary and other statewide literacy and professional development programs,” she said. “We are advocating to have Congress add back in library funding as we know that many folks on both sides of the aisle want quality libraries and support for reading and literacy.”
Libraries across Pennsylvania already are starting to feel the effects of the state budget impasse. The state has not paid out roughly $14 million that is supposed to go to Pennsylvania’s 29 library districts. Those district libraries — which include Bethlehem Area and Easton Area — pay for a lot of services and subscriptions that are used by individual libraries in their network.
“Unfortunately, many districts don’t have the reserves and capacity to purchase these without the public library subsidy funds,” Buker said.
Waiting for the state
Berk is watching and waiting to see what happens.
“This year I haven’t cut anything yet,” he said. “Past year in the state budget, we basically stopped buying books until the money comes in, so that’s the easier thing to control than letting people go. In the past, we’ve also left positions unfilled temporarily until the money came in. … But this year I’ve not made those plans yet.”
At Northampton Area Public Library, state money makes up 27% of the $508,000 budget, Laroche said. Most of that goes to cover staffing.
The state typically disburses funds in August, January or, for some libraries, both months. Northampton’s money isn’t due until January, so it hasn’t had to dip into reserves.
The library has yet to make any official plans if state funding is postponed, cut or never comes, but Laroche said she is confident it would be able to sustain itself, at least in the short term.
“I’m glad that the board has been smart about running the library the way they have,” Laroche said. “They have put a lot of money away in investment funds for just this kind of situation so I have no doubt that for the year, we would be able to run the library without a problem.”
Easton Area Public Library, which has a $2.7 million budget, gets $225,000 for its budget, and $240,000 as a district center, which it uses to provide services to smaller libraries.
It typically gets payments in January and August, but the latter is late amid the budget impasse in Harrisburg.
“It is a concern because money as a district center was to have been paid last month,” library Director Jennifer Long said. “We supplemented that money with our own reserves to provide e-resources to not just our own patrons but to patrons of the geographic area that has been assigned to us. In addition, that money is used to pay our drivers who deliver materials in that geographic area and our staff who are liaisons to that area as well now.
“The longer this goes on with the state budget not being passed, the more concerning this becomes because there’s only so much reserves that can be used,” she said.
Sunni Battin is a freelance writer.
