The is the second in an occasional look at the city budget process, and why numbers matter more than anything the bosses or bureaucrats downtown say.

At first glance, city spending on the library system has increased nicely since 2000-01, with spending up 44 percent to about $32.8 million, or 5.5 percent a year. That’s bigger than the annual growth in the city budget since then, which has been about 5.2 percent. But we know better than to believe first glances, don’t we?

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In 2000-01, the city operated the central library and 22 branches. This year, it operates the central library and 25 branches. So, instead of a budget increase of 5.5 percent, it’s actually half of that, based on the total spent divided by the number of libraries. Since inflation has averaged close to 3 percent since then, the library system is actually behind. Keep this in mind when the Council starts looking for fat to trim and goes after the library system.