Make wishtv.com your home page

Indiana library funding restored in newest proposed budget

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – The Indiana State Library could avoid big funding cuts proposed by Gov. Mike Pence now that legislators are putting together the new state budget.

Pence’s budget proposal axed about a quarter of the state library’s funding. That $2 million cut would’ve forced the downtown Indianapolis library to eliminate many services, including its 100,000-item genealogy department and public online access to licensed databases of historical and scientific journals.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Tim Brown says the proposed cuts drew concerns from universities, libraries and genealogists.

The latest version of the budget offered by majority House Republicans this week restores the library funding that Pence had aimed to cut. House members are expected to vote on the proposed budget next week, sending it on to the Senate.