Tax of $35 Per Parcel Urged to Aid Libraries : Budget: Amount for a proposed ballot measure would allow Ventura to expand hours, staffers say. Ojai, county will consider similar levies.

Recommending the minimum amount necessary to expand the hours of Ventura’s three libraries but not enough to pay for renovations, city staffers on Friday said they will urge the City Council to place a $35-per-parcel tax proposal on November’s ballot.

Although the council tentatively approved placing the initiative on the ballot at its June 26 meeting, it stopped short of pinpointing the amount it will ask the city’s 29,500 property owners to pay.

“We felt this was the most feasible amount,” said Terry Adelman, city director of management resources. “If this proposal is approved by the council and later by the voters, it’s our hope that it will establish a stable source of funding for the libraries.”

The council will take up the matter on Monday. Adelman said the measure, which requires approval of two-thirds of the voters, would raise about $1 million annually.

A similar, but separate, parcel tax proposal is set to be considered by the Ojai City Council at its meeting Tuesday. And Ventura County Supervisor Susan Lacey has indicated she will soon ask her colleagues on the board to set a similar library funding measure on the ballot for unincorporated areas of Ventura and the Ojai Valley that fall in her district.

But, given the instability of Ventura County finances, Adelman warned that the new tax revenue could end up serving only to maintain the library’s status quo.

Over the last two years, the county has provided a subsidy of $2.4 million to help fund the state-supported, 16-branch library system. This year, county officials said they will only be able to provide about half of the $1.6 million requested by library officials.

Library officials have urged Ventura city leaders to support a parcel tax in view of the county’s $38-million budget deficit, which could threaten or severely cut the library system.

“That is one possible scenario,” Adelman said. “But we will know what the county’s budget picture is well before this comes before the voters. We should know where we stand.”

City officials said that with $800,000 in city property taxes already earmarked for the Foster, Wright and Avenue libraries, the $1 million that would be raised by the parcel tax would allow the three facilities to roughly double their current operating hours.

But Mayor Tom Buford conceded that it will be a tough fight to convince city voters to support the measure and that the new funding will probably only support an expansion of operating hours, not needed remodeling or renovations.

“I’ve said before that I am not anxious to get into the library business, but clearly the county isn’t going to be there,” Buford said. “Someone has to step up to the challenge. Libraries are too important to our community.”

Still to be decided by the council is whether the tax will be assessed strictly on parcels in the city or upon dwelling units. If the latter is selected, the tax would generate an estimated $1.5 million a year.

Buford, who said Friday that he had not yet made a decision on what format he would support, added that should Ventura taxpayers support the tax, the additional revenue would still only represent a short-term solution to library funding.

City staff members are recommending that the council consider adopting a plan to tax commercial and industrial properties at $35 per parcel and dwelling units at $35 apiece. Adelman argued that this approach would be equitable in that all dwelling units would taxed at the same rate.

Ojai City Manager Andrew Belknap said his city’s proposal calls for an assessment of $35 per dwelling unit or non-residential parcel each year.

The tax, which like Ventura’s must be approved by two-thirds of the voters, would raise an estimated $100,000 to support the city’s lone county library facility.

“For several years now, the city has been backfilling the county’s revenue cuts for the library,” said Belknap. “We think the time is right to put this before the voters.”