Camarillo Places Library Tax Measure on March Ballot : Finances: The initiative would charge local property owners $25 a year for five years to extend hours at the cash-strapped facility.

Rather than spend money from the general fund or pursue a sales tax increase to pay for more library hours, the Camarillo City Council late Wednesday agreed to let voters decide whether to approve a property tax hike to support the town library.

The parcel tax measure will appear on the March, 1996, ballot among Camarillo-area voters. If approved, it would assess property owners $25 a year per parcel for the next five years. Voters in November, 2000, would be asked to renew the assessment.

Similar measures in Ojai and Ventura failed to gain the required two-thirds voter approval during last week’s election, although Ojai officials are considering another attempt to pass the tax.

Council members rejected a proposal from the Friends of the Camarillo Library, who earlier had asked that the panel either use hundreds of thousands of dollars from the general fund to support the cash-strapped library or pursue a sales tax increase to prop up the city library.

Earlier this year, the City Council agreed to donate nearly $50,000 to the local library, increasing its hours of operation from 36 to 47 each week.

But “I can’t see us continuing general fund contributions without some source to get the money,” Councilman Ken Gose said before Wednesday’s meeting. “If we do that, we have to take money away from something else.”

Betty Sullivan, president of the library boosters group, said before the council meeting that a sales tax increase would be a more equitable way to raise funds for the library.

“It would spread it out over such a large base that I don’t think anyone would feel it,” she said.

But council members did not relish the idea of a local sales tax increase.

“I think you would find it very difficult to pass a sales tax increase,” Gose said. “The last one we passed was for public safety, and we didn’t get a single penny of it in Camarillo.”

California voters in 1993 approved a half-cent sales tax increase to raise money for things such as police and fire departments and local district attorneys offices. Because Camarillo contracts with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department for police services, the city received no direct benefit from the increase, Gose said.

The Camarillo library is one of 16 branches administered by the Ventura County Library Services Agency, which has seen its funding drop by about 40% in the past several years.

Officials estimate that the $25 annual parcel tax would generate about $600,000 for the single-story library, which could then be open as many as 55 hours a week.