Mayor Rahm Emanuel is reducing the size of his proposed deep cuts to Chicago libraries. His original proposal was to cut $11 million in fuding which would have resulted in reduced morning hours on Mondays and Fridays as well as a reduction of 363 FTE positions.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that Rahm’s new budget plan restores $3 million in funding for libraries and will raise the cost of city stickers. I guess this is good news compared to the original proposal but it is still a far cry from full funding.
It’s unclear if the reduction in the size of the budget cuts will keep libraries from having to layoff staff or reduce hours. Given that the Mayor is still planning on slashing library budgets by 73% of his original proposal, I would guess there will still be layoffs and a reduction in hours.