Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Lancaster OKs Library Services Tax for One Year

City Council members have voted to impose a new library services fee on property owners for one year and let voters decide whether to maintain the fee beyond that time.

The library charges will be added to property tax bills if the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors votes to set up a proposed assessment district after an Aug. 30 public hearing.

Before the hearing, the supervisors asked elected officials in the 52 incorporated cities served by county libraries to decide whether they will allow the fee to be collected in their cities as well.

As proposed, the owner of a single-family house in Lancaster would pay $28.50 a year for library services. Other fees would be imposed for mobile homes, apartment buildings, commercial structures and vacant lots.

The new fee would not be collected in Palmdale, which operates its own city library.

Lancaster council members, who voted Monday to impose the fee, said they are reluctant to raise local property tax bills but want to restore library hours, which have been cut dramatically in recent years.

“I am a library user. I consider myself self-taught through books,” said Councilwoman Deborah Shelton. “I don’t think I’d be what I am today without a library and books. I really could not bring myself to leave the library hanging in the wind.”

The Lancaster branch library once operated seven days a week for a total of 64 hours. In recent years, however, the county system has lost about half of its property tax revenue because of state budget problems. The Lancaster branch, one of the busiest in the county system, is now open only four days a week, for a total of 28 hours.

If county supervisors approve the new assessment district, the Lancaster library’s hours will increase to at least 55 hours, six days a week, county officials said.

Mayor Frank Roberts and Councilmen Henry Hearns and Michael Singer joined Shelton in approving the new fee for the fiscal year that began July 1. However, the council also has placed an advisory measure on the November ballot, asking residents if they want to continue the fee.

If the measure is voted down, council members have said they will remove Lancaster from the assessment district next year, ending the fee. The election will occur too late to delete the fee from this year’s tax bills, city officials said.

Councilman George Runner cast the only vote against collecting the fee this year. “I felt uncomfortable imposing the tax for even one year until we heard from the public at an election,” he said.

Runner said widespread confusion could occur if the library measure loses in November, then shows up on property tax bills in December because of the council’s vote this week.

Even so, County Librarian Sandra Reuben said Wednesday that she is pleased by the Lancaster council majority’s decision. “I’m delighted,” she said. “This is a major library in a major community. It really means we can start getting back to normal services.”

If county supervisors approve the assessment district Aug. 30, expanded library hours in Lancaster will probably begin about a month later, Reuben said.