The end of next week by the end of next week, Mayor Eric Adams and the New York City Council

are supposed to complete a budget for the new fiscal year, right, that begins next Saturday

July 1st. And one sticking point that we seem to need to talk about nearly every year

is whether to cut funding to the city's libraries. Often this is theater. The Mayor proposes

cuts, City Council negotiates to restore them. The Mayor eventually agrees and everyone

lurks at least a little bit like a hero. But this year may be different, with Adams pushing

hard for a long list of cuts to many agencies based on projected revenue problems for the

city in the year ahead. So let's talk about what might happen and what's at stake. And we'll

take your calls on how you actually use libraries today with the leaders of all three New York City

public library systems, Dennis Walcott, CEO and president of the Queens public library system,

Linda Johnson, president and CEO of the Brooklyn public library, and Iris Weinchall, Chief Operating

Officer and Treasurer at the New York public library, which covers Manhattan, Staten Island,

and the Bronx. Thanks for coming on today. Welcome, all three of you are welcome back to WNYC.

And thank you, Ron. Thank you.

Dennis, want to start and lay out what kinds of cuts are on the table and the implications for users

in the city if they go through? Well, each of us will be handling the cuts a little differently,

but I know for Queens, we're looking at the total elimination of Sunday service, the end of

universal Saturday service and we'll be pairing back on Saturday service, fewer dollars for collections

and then also deferring a lot of maintenance that comes out of the expense capital money.

So all those will impact the system, especially as we continue to grow with more and more customers

coming through our doors and looking to us for services. For example, when I came into the office

this morning, the line was wrapped around the block as far as asylum seekers who were coming here

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