Elections : Altadena, South Pasadena Voters Approve Library Taxes

In an extraordinary double victory for library boosters at the ballot box, Altadena voters overwhelmingly supported a tax to bolster their library Tuesday as South Pasadena voters narrowly approved a similar measure.

Altadena tax proponents celebrated Tuesday night after their grass-roots campaign for a tax to keep the library’s doors open seven days a week defied a statewide trend against measures by winning easy approval.

More than four of five Altadena residents who went to the polls voted for the tax.

“I guess my 11-month-old son won’t remember this night, but in years to come I will tell him how Altadena citizens came together to do this extraordinary thing,” said Reynolds Cafferata, 27, chairman of the Save Our Altadena Library committee.

“When you have a library that has been the center of the community for decades, like this one, it’s easy to sell such a measure to people,” he said.

In South Pasadena, tax proponents had to wait until the early hours of Wednesday morning to hear that they had mustered more than the two-thirds majority need to pass the tax.

“This means the library is protected for five more years as a seven-day-a-week library. Boy, it felt like I’d graduated college again or gotten married when I got the news,” said Jan Wetzel, 66, chairman of the Committee to Protect Our Library.

“We were sweating a bit when we trailed on the absentee votes, but we knew our big army of campaign volunteers walking the precincts and working the phones brought out the voters,” he said.

The final count in South Pasadena was 68.7% for the tax and 31.3% opposed, with a voter turnout of 39%. In Altadena, 85.3% voted for the measure and 14.7% opposed it; 34.4% of the unincorporated area’s voters cast ballots. Both measures needed a two-thirds majority, or 66.6%, to win.

The Altadena levy will draw an extra $29 a year from each homeowner, $20 from each apartment owner and $59 to $79 from each non-residential property. That will provide $430,000 to restore services to 1991 levels.

In South Pasadena, the library tax will raise $219,500 a year to maintain seven-days-a-week library service and a variety of programs. Homeowners will pay $29 to $48 a year based on the square footage of their houses, apartment owners will chip in $12 per unit and businesses will pay $24 to $96 annually.

The tax had faced tough opposition from the South Pasadena Taxpayers Assn. because only property owners, not tenants, would pay it.

However, its leaders were conciliatory Wednesday. “The people have clearly spoken (that) they want this tax. That is how the system is supposed to work,” said Tom Biesek, a leading association member.

Both communities’ taxes stay in effect for five years and have exemptions for low-income homeowners.

The campaigns built support on the threat of severe cuts if voters rejected the measures. In South Pasadena, proponents spread the message that with a city budget shortfall the library would close three days a week, lay off part-time employees and cancel special children’s programs.

In Altadena, librarian Bill Tema announced that the main library would close two of the six days it is now open and the branch library would be cut from five to two days.

Proponents in both communities said the challenge was getting people to the polls because most residents were more than willing to give moral and vocal support.