Excerpt: Once upon a time, the Dallas Public Library boasted a $32 million annual budget.
Those were the good old days.
Unfortunately, those days are long gone – siphoned off by a revenue drought that, once again, has the city dipping into every well it can find to fill a projected $130 million budget gap.
It's a familiar storyline, to be sure – one that's playing out in cities across the state and the nation.
But the Dallas library, once a sacred cow of sorts, is beginning to feel more like a sacrificial lamb in the city's numbers-crunching game.
The library's budget was cut to $28 million two years ago. Last year, the city tapped it for $6 million more in cuts.
This year, city officials are looking to drain up to $9 million from the library's bottom line, which would drop it to as low as $13 million next fiscal year.
Enough is enough, say some library protagonists, who are more than ready to throw the book at City Hall.
Related articles:
Axe is poised over library. (5/24/2010)
Friends of Library board chairman speaks out. (9/1/2009)
Dallas Public Library budget hacked (old-style). (7/23/2009)
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