I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'd much prefer to see "this was the line item last year, and this is the line item this year", rather than saying some circums

I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'd much prefer to see "this was the line item last year, and this is the line item this year", rather than saying some circumstantial evidence supersedes a black and white figure. If he cut state funding to zero, he cut state funding to zero. If some municipalities can still afford to run libraries on their own dime, that doesn't really change the fact. Especially considering that federal grants have dried up and municipal budgets have tightened over the last 10 years.