Bake Sales Won’t Do It

To those who love books, the closing of any library is a shock. When it happens in one’s hometown, it is a bolt of lightning. For more than 30 years, Pasadena has operated nine public libraries: the stately Central Library and eight smaller libraries in the city’s neighborhoods. But unless a new source of funding is found soon, “we face the possibilitythat all the branch libraries will close in July, 1993,” says Sally Young, Principal Librarian.

This revelation is poignant because for years the city’s library system has been, in the words of City Manager Philip Hawkey, “a model for other cities nationwide.” The roots of Pasadena’s library as a cultural institution are deep. A Library Society was begun here in 1882, two years before the city was incorporated. Sixty percent of the city’s residents have a library card; the national average is 30%.

Library Director Ed Szynaka has been speaking at community meetings almost daily for weeks. On an evening in early February, he spoke at the San Rafael branch. He gave his explanation for the grim situation facing the library and outlined options then under discussion to provide the library with a stable source of funding.

In 1978, Proposition 13, a “taxpayers’ revolt,” passed, promising to trim waste from local government. Libraries and other public agencies did some belt-tightening but, Szynaka said, “the California economy was healthy, sales-tax revenues were good, property values, and taxes on them, were climbing. Today the state’s economy is in a deep slump.”

Pasadena’s general fund, from which police, fire, parks and recreation and library budgets come, is supported by sales and property taxes and utility fees. Repeated cuts in municipal revenues have been mandated in Sacramento. Gov. Pete Wilson has twice increased the state’s share of the property-tax pie, which shrinks the city’s general fund.

Some drastic steps have been taken to trim library costs. The book budget has been reduced 65% over the last three years; newspaper and magazine subscriptions have been cut by 20%. Adults’ and children’s programs have been reduced by half; evening talks by authors have ended. Central Library is now open 46 hours a week; it was 70 hours until July, 1992. Branch libraries are open just four days a week. Library employees have worked under a voluntary salary freeze since last February.

In November, a 10-member Task Force on Alternative Funding for the Library was appointed by the Pasadena Public Library Commission. Among options being considered are periodic benefit concerts at the Rose Bowl, charging patrons to borrow books, charging an annual fee, even a library-admission charge.

At the public meetings, residents were alerted to the magnitude of the crisis facing the cozy library “down the street.” But some citizens have had difficulty visualizing a $7-million budget. Several people have asked why library operating expenses are not covered by overdue fines. (In a recent year, these fines amounted to 2.6% of the library’s budget.)

On Feb. 17, the task force recommended a special tax on real property of the type Szynaka favors: $96 annually on single-family houses or condominiums, $60 on apartment units and 10 cents on each square foot of improvements on non-residential properties. Churches, community-service organizations and some low-income households would be exempt. The tax on improvements to hospitals and private schools offering instruction through high school would be six cents per square foot. The measure would require approval by two-thirds of the voters in a special election. The fate of the library hangs in the balance.