From the Metrowest Daily News:
Bookworms may notice a cleaner Southborough Library in the coming weeks, as selectmen Tuesday allowed the town to rehire one of the maintenance employees it was forced to lay off recently.
Facilities Manager Phil Rinehart said he needed to let two workers go after his department’s budget was cut by 8 percent. But because of a new approach to managing the library, he was able to offer one of the workers a part-time position.
You can read more here.
I would question the claim that his budget was “cut by 8%”. Because there may have been some transfers of responsibility affecting the department, and because I have been able to forget some of the details since the end of the budget drafting season, I cannot be completely sure of an apples to apples comparison, but I can tell you that last year’s budget for that department was $428,000 and this year’s is $454,000. Not a cut of 8%, you may notice. Rather it is an increase of 6%. The budget change from the prior year (FY 10) to last year (FY11) was a decline of 3.6%, but not 8%.
I could be that I am missing some transfer between accounts and so may be mistaken, or this may be another case of the word “cuts” when uttered by our public officials meaning, “Less than, in some other life, I hoped for but never received.” which is its popular meaning during the budget season.