As the registrar prepares to send out ballots next week for the
county
’s first mail-in election, campaigns for and against two parcel
tax measures to fund county libraries are heating up.
As the registrar prepares to send out ballots next week for the county’s first mail-in election, campaigns for and against two parcel tax measures to fund county libraries are heating up.
“A grassroots effort is needed because without getting the word out there it will look like everyone’s happy with the library tax,” anti-tax advocate Mark Zappa said Tuesday. “I will be writing some letters to the editor and I’ll bring it up wherever people will listen to me.”
Gilroy resident Zappa is a member of the Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association, which, along with state and county Libertarian parties and the Santa Clara Valley Republican Assembly, is leading the fight against Measures A and B.
Measure A would extend the present annual tax of $33.66 for another 10 years. Measure B would assess each parcel an additional $12 a year. Librarians say the renewal is needed to maintain what is a steadily deteriorating financial outlook. The additional levy would allow the system’s nine libraries to reopen on Mondays and restore cuts to the libraries’ books and materials budgets.
For Measure B to pass, Measure A must also pass. If Measure A fails, a parcel tax that raises $5.4 million annually for the library system will expire at the end of June. That revenue is ever more critical because libraries have lost some state funding and revenue from vehicle registration taxes. Last year, a $1.1 million budget shortfall forced all nine libraries to close on Mondays.
The cost of the mail-in balloting was estimated at $1.8 million.
If parcel taxes fail the library system would endure further cuts, said County Librarian Melinda Cervantes.
“We would have to lay off staff, reduce the book collection budget and cut hours another 10-15 hours a week,” Cervantes said.
But opponents of the measures say taxes are the wrong way to fund libraries and that more efficient budgeting – including reducing staff – would make the parcel taxes unnecessary.
“Our position is in keeping with our generic role as defender of people’s property and money,” said Allen Hacker, chairman of the Libertarian Party of Santa Clara County. “This is not the right way to fund a library.”
Hacker said the county should follow the example set in Salinas. That city planned to close all three of its public libraries after a parcel tax failed in November 2004, but has kept them open one day a week with some private funding.
He also decried the nearly $2 million the library system is spending to put the measure on the ballot.
“The library is spending way too much money to hold an election in the most expensive manner possible,” Hacker said. “We can’t stop it but we have to point it out so they don’t do it this way next time.”
A measure on the March 2004 primary election ballot to extend the current parcel and increase it to $42 received 61 percent approval, short of the needed two-thirds majority. Morgan Hill provided the third highest number of ‘yes’ votes; Gilroy the lowest number.
Ballots will be mailed Monday, April 4, and must be received by the registrar by Tuesday, May 3. A May 3 postmark will not do.
The nine county libraries are located in Gilroy, Morgan Hill, Milpitas, Los Gatos, Saratoga, Cupertino, Monte Sereno, Campbell, Alum Rock and the unincorporated areas.
