VENTURA : Library Tax May Appear on Ballot

The Ventura City Council has agreed to place a library tax on the November citywide ballot if a regional plan to raise money for the library system is not successful.

Dozens of Ventura residents told the council this week they are willing to be taxed $35 a year to support their local libraries and asked the seven-member panel to bypass voters and impose the annual assessment.

But noting that a countywide effort to salvage the struggling county Library Services Agency is under way, council members late Monday refused to levy the tax outright.

“I’m really wrestling with this one,” Councilman Steve Bennett said at one point in the lengthy discussion, sparked by pleas from more than 30 library boosters. “Should we put it in ourselves, or should we put it on the ballot?”

Councilman Gary Tuttle had no such dilemma.

He asked the council to begin assessment proceedings that would have taxed property owners $35 a year per parcel to pay for Ventura’s three library branches.

But that motion died for lack of support.

An hour later, the council agreed to discuss the tax again in two weeks--days after a regional panel of elected officials considers a similar countywide assessment.

Councilman Gregory L. Carson, the city’s representative on the Ventura Council of Governments, said the tax would only pay for library operations and would not generate money to pay for building improvements.

Council members later voted to tell the county that they support a library tax and directed city staff members to begin work on a November ballot measure.

They also will review potential funding sources for library system renovations.