State Budget Cuts Threaten Local Library Staffs, Services

Libraries in several Ventura County cities are facing layoffs and shorter hours as a result of state funding cuts proposed by Gov. Gray Davis.

Layoff notices went out this week to 37 workers at the county system’s branches in Fillmore, Ojai, Port Hueneme and Ventura.

Eleven are regular employees and the others are fill-in workers, said Starrett Kreissman, the county’s library director. They perform a variety of duties, from working the reference desk to checking books out.

The libraries’ hours of service would also be trimmed under the cost-reduction plan.

The county library system will lose 50% of the state revenue it receives under cuts proposed for the current fiscal year by Davis.

However, there is a chance the money will be restored by the Legislature. That possibility improved Friday when a state Assembly committee voted to block the cuts, Kreissman said.

The employees will be terminated by Feb. 15 if the dollars do not come through.

Cities with affected libraries may also decide to come up with their own funds, Kreissman said. Fillmore has already voted to do so, and Ojai and Port Hueneme are scheduled to discuss the matter, she said.

But with the state facing a $35-billion shortfall in the coming year, nothing is certain, she said. Overall, the library system has seen state revenue drop from $750,000 in 2000 to $201,000 this year.

“It’s a huge cut -- 72% in three years,” she said.

The state began sending Public Library Fund money to counties in the early 1980s, after Proposition 13 cut local property tax revenue. The money was intended to equalize library funding for those cities that did not collect enough in local tax revenue to provide services, Kreissman said.

Other Ventura County cities that are part of the county library system, such as Simi Valley and Camarillo, are not affected because their property taxes are sufficient to cover costs, the library director said.

In Los Angeles, the county library system is facing a $1.6-million cut in revenue, said spokeswoman Nancy Mahr.

That will translate into 45,000 fewer books purchased, Mahr said. So far, no layoffs or reduced hours are being considered at the county’s 84 libraries, she said.

However, the bigger question is how much will Los Angeles libraries lose next year, Mahr said. “We are waiting,” she said. “It is going to impact service at some point.”

Ventura County is being hit much harder because it has little wiggle room in its budget, Kreissman said.

“Everybody talks about fat in government,” she said. “There is no fat in the library system.”