Christine MacDonald / / The Detroit News
Detroit — The Detroit Public Library is preparing to shutter as many as 10 branches and lay off one-third of its workers because of financial projections city officials say were a misunderstanding.
City finance staffers say they told library counterparts in March that 20 percent of the city's property taxes go uncollected.
Library staffers took that to mean property tax revenues would decline 20 percent a year until 2015 and prepared plans for branch closures, which were expected to be considered but those talks were postponed.
"We want to make sure the numbers we put out there are the most accurate," library spokesman A.J. Funchess said this morning.
But Mayor Dave Bing's staff says the library's math is all wrong.
"That is an incorrect assumption based on the numbers the city has presented," said Dan Lijana, a Bing spokesman. "To say city property taxes are going to decline 20 percent is not accurate."
Now, at least two commissioners informed of the mix-up by The Detroit News say they may tweak their controversial downsizing plan. But the system already has notified employees that 111 of 376 staffers will be laid off by June.
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