VENTURA : Backers to Promote Library Tax Today

During last year’s “Make a Difference Day,” library supporters surveyed 1,128 Ventura residents, with 87% responding they would pay an annual library tax to increase service.

Using these results as their mandate, library backers have placed such a measure on the November ballot. And to mark this year’s observance of the national community service day, ballot measure proponents will staff voter outreach booths at several locations this weekend.

Measure L would raise Ventura homeowners’ taxes $35 per parcel, generating an additional $1.2 million for the city’s three library branches. If the measure fails, the county Library Services Agency predicts Ventura’s Avenue Library will close and hours at the city’s other two branches will continue to shrink.

“A year ago, nobody was really talking about the library at all,” said Trish Cavanaugh, a spokeswoman for the library agency. “There has been such a major shift.”

Supporters will hand out leaflets this morning at the city’s farmers’ market and between noon and 5 p.m. at the Barnes & Noble bookstore at 4360 E. Main St.

Backers of two similar measures for Ojai Valley libraries--measures N and O--will staff a booth at Ojai’s farmers’ market today. And on Sunday, Ventura library boosters will attend the grand opening of a new park at 572 N. Ventura Ave. between noon and 5 p.m.

Though the measures appear to have strong support among many voters, the county’s elections division has said property tax initiatives rarely pass their first time on the ballot.

Opponents contend that county government should find a way to fund the area’s 16 cash-poor libraries. The Ventura County Taxpayers Assn. has said voters should not have to assume the obligation.