Library Boosters Propose Parcel Tax to Aid Branches

Urging fellow library boosters to keep up the good fight, a group of dedicated patrons outlined a possible solution to the county library’s financial troubles.

Members of volunteer library groups from across the county met in Camarillo to discuss forming a joint-powers agency that could institute a parcel tax to help meet library budget shortfalls. Many of the activists pledged to return to their respective cities and pitch the idea to municipal officials and residents as one way to keep the library branches open.

“I think it’s the way to go,” said Martin Rooney, treasurer of the Ventura-based Save Our Library.

The group is focused on the county library system that handles 245,000 patrons in communities across Ventura County, except in Thousand Oaks, Oxnard and Santa Paula, which operate independent libraries.

The library supporters looked at Santa Clara County as a possible model. Voters in that Bay Area county established a benefit assessment district to collect $5 million a year for the local library system. The money is distributed by a special joint-powers agency made up of city and county elected officials.

The idea has surfaced as one option in Ventura County after voters in Ventura, Camarillo and Piru rejected recent ballot measures that would have infused libraries with additional tax dollars. Only voters in the Ojai Valley and Santa Paula have approved a special parcel tax for their libraries.

But a benefit assessment district would only require a simple majority of voters, contrasted with the steep two-thirds majority needed for passage of a parcel tax via a local ballot measure.

The difference is important, library backers say, because even where local measures failed at the polls, more than half of all voters cast ballots favoring the tax initiatives.

“A simple majority could be achievable,” said Hal Wilson, past president of Friends of the Camarillo Library. Wilson said he plans to bring up the idea with Camarillo City Manager Bill Little and he believes it may have considerable appeal because it gives city officials a degree of control over their library branch.

The 16-branch library system has been struggling the past three years because of state cuts amounting to about $5 million a year--nearly half of the libraries’ total budget. The cuts instituted by Gov. Pete Wilson have led to the elimination of many services that libraries formerly provided. The actions translated into a roughly 40% reduction in staffing and branch hours and a nearly 50% cut in book purchases.

The county this year used $1.5 million from its general fund to prop up the libraries, but supervisors have warned that they intend to cut that funding in next year’s budget.

Supervisor Frank Schillo has been working with library groups and city officials, trying to forge a consensus to transfer the libraries from the county to some sort of federation of cities. While Schillo favors reducing county overhead to achieve savings, he concedes that his plan would not allow the libraries to restore hours--something the volunteers say is important if the system is to be viable.