SF 32: Public Library Endowment Challenge Program
2007 General Session

Sponsor: Sen. John Schiffer (R-S22, Kaycee); co-sponsors Sen. Mike Massie (D-S9, Laramie) and Reps. Rosie Berger (R-H51, Big Horn), Roy Cohee (R-H35, Casper), Colin Simpson (R-H24, Cody)

SF 32 would have created a Wyoming public library endowment challenge program. The purpose of the program was to provide funds from the state to match endowment gifts made to Wyoming public library foundations, on a county-by-county basis.

The state would have provided different levels of matching funds to different counties around the state. The bill proposed a state match of three times the amount raised by library foundations of Albany, Johnson, Big Horn, Hot Springs, Platte, Crook, Weston, Washakie, Goshen and Niobrara Counties; two times the amount raised by library foundations of Natrona, Lincoln, Carbon, Uinta, Laramie, Park, Sheridan and Converse Counties; and one-to-one match for Campbell, Sublette, Sweetwater, Fremont and Teton Counties.

Matching state funds would have been paid whenever a county’s public library foundation received endowment gifts that cumulatively totaled $10,000 or more. Library foundations would have managed the state matching funds in the same manner as other permanent endowment funds are managed, including permanent investment of funds, maintenance of the fund corpus as inviolate, and expenditure of fund interest earnings for endowment purposes.

As introduced, SF 32 would have appropriated $25.3 million to pay for the state matching grants, and that money would have been equally divided into 23 separate accounts of $1.1 million each, one for each county library foundation.

This library endowment challenge program was scheduled to expire in 2014, and any unexpended funds remaining at that time would have reverted to the state’s budget reserve account.

Proponents of SF 32 advanced the bill as a way to stimulate endowment giving to public libraries, and noted that SF 32 would offer extra support to county libraries that need it the most, in counties without a strong property tax base where libraries are relatively poorly funded.

The Senate amended the funding in SF 32 down to $8.4 million, with a directive for the governor to include $16.9 million to complete funding of the endowment fund in his 2009-2010 budget request. Thus amended, the Senate passed SF 32, 27-2 (1 excused). The bill was introduced in the House and referred to the House Appropriations Committee, where it died without a recorded vote.

The votes listed below are the Senate third reading (final passage) votes. A YES vote means the legislator supported an endowment challenge program for Wyoming’s public libraries. A NO vote means the legislator did not support this library endowment program.

ENGROSSED