PLACENTIA : Library Board Votes to Support Measure R

Library board members have endorsed Measure R, the proposed half-cent sales tax, fearing that without it they could lose some of their revenue.

“The main implication is that if it doesn’t pass, property tax revenues will be shifted away from the library for bankruptcy recovery efforts,” Elizabeth D. Minter, the library’s director, said Monday. “And the big problem with the bankruptcy is that it’s already given us a cash-flow problem. We’ve had to defer many, many purchases this year.”

The Placentia Library District, which is independent of the county library system, relies on property taxes for its budget, including books, staff and its programs, Minter said.

The board’s vote was 3 to 2, with President Peggy Dinsmore and trustees Ray Evans and Robin Masters in favor and Al Shkoler and Saundra Stark opposed.

Stark said she did not think the district would see any of the Measure R money, and if it did, it would take at least 10 years before it started coming in. She said she believed there were other ways the library district could raise the $120,000 that it lost in the bankruptcy. One idea would be to ask residents to donate a few dollars to make up for lost revenue.

“We can explore the options,” she said. “We could ask our cardholders for a voluntary contribution, and it wouldn’t be that much. I’d rather pay the library district $4 than have a sales tax imposed.”

About 30,000 residents in the area use the library, 15,000 of them on a regular basis, Stark said.