After days of back-and-forth between House Republicans and library proponents, the House on Wednesday approved a biennial budget that increases funding to public libraries, but not to the level proposed by Gov. Mike DeWine. 

The House’s budget also changes how public libraries are funded by forgoing the Public Library Fund, which formerly received a percentage of the overall state budget, in favor of a flat rate.

The budget will next move to the Senate for consideration and a vote. DeWine must sign the budget bill by June 30. 

The House budget would allocate $490 million for fiscal year 2026 and $500 million for fiscal year 2027. That’s $10 million more than the House originally proposed spending on libraries over that two-year period. 

Akron-Summit County Public Library Executive Director Pam Hickson-Stevenson attributed the increase in funding to Ohioans who contacted their state legislators to protest the cuts. In recent days, libraries across the state, including Akron-Summit County, released calls to action encouraging local residents to ask their representatives to restore the Public Library Fund.

Still, the House’s new figures are $90.8 million less over the two-year period than DeWine’s recommended funding. 

“I think seeing that and just hearing from some of my colleagues, that’s kind of added a little bit of, I guess, nervousness, frustration [and] disappointment,” said Cuyahoga Falls Library Director Andrew Harrant.

The governor is in favor of continuing to pay for libraries using the Public Library Fund, which distributes a share of the state’s total tax revenue to each county. The House wants to eliminate the Public Library Fund in favor of a flat funding amount.

“I think they felt that it was a more transparent way to show how much money public libraries are getting, because it was a set dollar amount in the budget,” Hickson-Stevenson said when asked about Republican House members’ proposal to eliminate the Public Library Fund.

She continued, “But, it’s transparent no matter how you look at it. Our books are open; the state’s books are open. There’s no doubt that people can find out, even monthly, how much public libraries are receiving from the state government. But beyond that, I don’t really know. There’s been no particular stated reason.”

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House budget would cut millions in library funding compared to DeWine’s 

Currently, the Public Library Fund receives 1.7% of the state’s total tax revenue. For fiscal year 2024, that amount was $489.3 million. For fiscal year 2025, it was previously estimated to be $530 million. That number has since been revised down to between $495 and $500 million based on tax revenues, Pete LuPiba, the chief communications officer for the state Office of Budget and Management, told Signal Statewide Reporter Andrew Tobias in an email. 

Olivia Wile, spokesperson for Ohio House Republicans, told Tobias that the House’s revised estimate for what libraries would receive this fiscal year is $493 million. 

Under the House’s proposed budget, state libraries would receive an average of $495 million per year in fiscal years 2026 and 2027, compared to $491 million a year in fiscal years 2024 and 2025. (This is using the $493 million number Wile provided.)

DeWine’s proposed budget would increase the Public Library Fund to 1.75%, an estimated $531.7 million for fiscal year 2026 and $549.1 million for fiscal year 2027, or about $36.7 million more than the House budget in 2026 and $54.1 million more in 2027. 

According to the Ohio Library Council, the state’s public libraries depend on the Public Library Fund for 51% of their total funding. In Summit County, the statewide fund covers more than 46% of the Akron-Summit County Public Library’s funding needs. For Cuyahoga Falls Library, the fund covers 51% of its operating needs.

Hickson-Stevenson is not sure what it would mean for Akron-Summit County Public Library if DeWine approves the budget with the House’s numbers. 

“This has all been moving so fast … I don’t even have the dollar amounts for Summit County as a whole yet, let alone for our library system,” she said.

Discussions around library funding in the state budget are coming at a time when both the Cuyahoga Falls and Akron-Summit County public libraries are experiencing increases in library visitors and usage. 

More than 160,000 people visited Cuyahoga Falls Library in 2024, a 12% increase over 2023, Harrant said. He added that the library also saw a 7% increase in the number of items borrowed.

An April 3 news release from the Akron-Summit County Public Library stated that, in 2024, the library system saw increases in library visits and in attendance at library programs.

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House also moves to put restrictions on Ohio libraries

The House budget bill would also place other new restrictions on Ohio’s public libraries. Those include a proposal to ban menstrual products in public men’s restrooms and one requiring libraries to place materials related to sexual orientation and gender identity or expression in adults-only sections.

Harrant said in recent years the library has received “a couple challenges” regarding titles in its collection, but the system’s view is that it should be up to parents and guardians, not legislators, to decide what’s appropriate for children to read.

“We do a lot of research and investigation, and then we respond to the complaint,” Harrant said. “In those two instances, after we went through our process, we made no changes to the availability or where we shelf [the titles].”

He continued, “We responded to the people who complained, and that was the end of it. We have not heard any more from either of the people.”

In the last few years, the Akron-Summit County Public Library has not heard any concerns from patrons about titles, Hickson-Stevenson said. Like Harrant, she supports the rights of parents and guardians to oversee what their children check out from the library. 

“We do not support a particular group of parents [dictating] what other parents want their children to access,” she added.

Regarding menstrual products in men’s restrooms, Hickson-Stevenson said that is not an issue for the library system. 

“We don’t have tampons in the men’s restrooms,” she said. “We can’t even do the menstrual equity project in all of our women’s restrooms, let alone men’s, because it is an expense.”

According to Cleveland.com, at a Tuesday press conference DeWine declined to say whether he would veto the House’s proposal to end the Public Library Fund.

Culture & Arts Reporter (she/her)
Brittany is an accomplished journalist who’s passionate about the arts, civic engagement and great storytelling. She has more than a decade of experience covering culture and arts, both in Ohio and nationally. She previously served as the associate editor of Columbus Monthly, where she wrote community-focused stories about Central Ohio’s movers and shakers. A lifelong Ohioan, she grew up in Springfield and graduated from Kent State University.