When I was six years old, my mother took me to the library in Vineland, New Jersey. She pointed me to a stack of Hardy Boy books and said, “Pick five. ” That started my love affair with libraries. (Throughout my childhood, I have had a recurring fantasy of being accidentally locked in a library overnight. There’s something about being surrounded by bookshelves that really gets me going.)

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Just as the battle lines are hardening, newly compiled figures on wage tax revenue growth threaten to end the battle over the mayor's proposed cuts by giving the mayor a good reason to delay them.

For the first five months of the current fiscal year, buoyed by a strong showing in November, wage tax revenues are $24,404,000 OVER projections. Assuming the $4,881,000 per month surplus over expectations continues through the remaining seven months of the fiscal year, the city would wind up with a $58,571,000 surplus above expectations in wage tax revenue for the fiscal year.

That is not the most optimistic way to make the projections. The city is collecting wage taxes at the rate of $125,141,400 a month. Assuming that monthly pace continues, the the city will wind up $342,978,000 AHEAD of its total revenue projection of $1,158,586,000.