California’s top librarian, Greg Lucas, is under the microscope after lawmakers zeroed in on roughly $649,000 that cannot be reconciled in paperwork tied to the state’s rollout of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. The program, funded with tens of millions in state money to send free books to young children, has been widely praised for boosting access to reading material. But a budget packet prepared for a Senate budget subcommittee hearing this week flagged troubling gaps in the accounting, and legislators made it clear they want answers fast.
What the budget packet found
According to a review by Senate budget staff, the Legislature authorized $68.2 million to build a statewide Imagination Library and the California State Library responded by…..