The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh's board chair has signed on to Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's interpretation of a funding disagreement, confirming in a letter dated yesterday that a $1 million pledge in the city budget was contingent on a shelved tuition tax.

The letter by library system Chair Jacqui Fiske Lazo to the mayor, released by Mr. Ravenstahl's office today, has prompted Councilman Bruce Kraus to postpone introduction of legislation that would have granted a second $600,000 payment toward keeping threatened branches open.

Mr. Ravenstahl's 2010 budget originally included $16 million from a tuition tax, of which $1 million was slated for the library system. The tax was nixed, but the $1 million capital grant remained in the budget.

Around the same time the budget was introduced, then-Council President Doug Shields said the libraries would get $600,000 from this year's city capital budget, along with $600,000 from last year's city operating budget.

In January, though, the city Finance Department removed the $1 million allocation, and last week, some council members said such a change should have come before council. A library spokesperson said the system's budget counted on the second $600,000 grant, and Mr. Kraus drafted legislation solidifying that pledge.

Ms. Lazo's letter, though, says the library system's leaders "understood that when your proposal to institute a post-secondary education privilege tax was wthdrawn, the funding from those tax revenues committed to the Library (in the amoung of $1,000,000) was also withdrawn." It does not say whether the library needs the second $600,000 grant, and Ms. Lazo could not be immediately reached for comment.

The letter goes on to thank the administration for working with other city and state officials to help the library "to address short- and long-term shortfalls" facing the system.

The library last year proposed closing four branches, merging two others, and moving yet another to address a chronic budget gap. The city's pledge, along with state legislation guaranteeing a sliver of future table games revenue to the libraries, prompted the system to postpone the changes while a panel seeks a long-term financial fix.

Looking for more from the Post-Gazette? Join PG+, our members-only web site. You'll get exclusive sports content, opinion, financial information, discounts from retailers and restaurants, and more. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.