"The Free Library has been in an ongoing funding crisis for over ten years," said Alice Wells, head of the Friends of the Library's Walnut West Branch.
RELATED: Mayor Kenney offers pragmatic budget for election year
Wells paints a dire picture of neighborhood libraries, hobbled since the city cut budgets during the Great Recession. She and other advocates say the library system has never gotten back to full funding and would need $15 million to get there.
"In 2018, we saw the entire library system reach a breaking point that threatens its very mission as a public institution," Wells said.
City Council is sympathetic.
Sixteen of 17 members sent a letter to the mayor urging full funding, but Mayor Kenney proposed just $2 1/2 million.
READ: Angry library lovers march on Philadelphia City Hall, demand more funding
"I don't know how they would spend $15 million frankly," Kenney said.
In a written response to council obtained by KYW Newsradio, Kenney says the library system's problem is not funding but high usage of employee leave time, that it's slow to fill vacancies and has put resources into special programs at the central and regional branches at the expense of neighborhood branches.
In an interview, he says he's willing to negotiate.
"That number possibly could go up but it's never going to get to $15 million," Kenney said.