Gov. Ed Rendell's proposed 2006-07 budget contains good news for libraries, but it would not be out of line for the legislature to find a way to increase library allocations beyond what the governor will be seeking.

Rendell's plan would provide $200,000 more to libraries in the coming fiscal year than what they received before cuts were imposed shortly after he took office three years ago. Those cuts were necessitated by a downturn in the state's fiscal fortunes that began during the administrations of Gov. Tom Ridge and Mark Schweiker, when the state's Rainy Day fund had to be drained.

During Rendell's first year in office, the 2003-04 state budget reduced library aid by more than one-third, to $47.8 million from the $75.3 million allocated in 2002-03, the fiscal year when library funding peaked. Subsequent budgets have brought about aid increases — $57.9 million was provided in 2004-05 and $61.4 million in 2005-06 — but many of the libraries have had to keep in effect the curtailed services that were implemented in response to the big 2003-04 reduction.

The money proposed for next year doesn't mean libraries will be able to restore all of the services that have been reduced or eliminated during the three most recent fiscal years. However, the $75.5 million Rendell is proposing for the 2006-07 fiscal year, which begins July 1, should help the libraries move significantly in that direction.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, in a 1997 series, documented that this state's libraries were among the nation's poorest and most meagerly equpped. The cuts in effect during the past three years certainly haven't improved that situation.

It is important that lawmakers make library funding one of the least-contentious topics of the 2006-07 budget deliberations.