Speaking before the Morgan Hill Unified School District’s Board of Education, Mayor Steve Tate emphasized the importance of having the Board of Education throw its full support behind the upcoming Measure A library tax vote.
The $33 annual parcel tax, which has been in place for 20 years, brings in $5.6 million annually for county libraries. That’s about 18 percent of the library system’s total budget. The money collected goes back to the local library where the tax originated and provides local school children and community college students in the Santa Clara County with access to first-class library services and materials.
Ballots will be mailed to registered voters starting next Monday and must be returned by August 27. The special tax needs a two-thirds vote to pass. If it passes, the rate will remain at $33.
“It’s not a tax increase. It’s not anything new. It’s just to continue what currently exists,” explained Tate, who asked the School Board to come up with a proclamation supporting the measure. He also implored the seven trustees to provide individual endorsements each.
The Morgan Hill Public Library is part of the Santa Clara County Library District, which will also include Cupertino, Campbell and Gilroy, explained Tate.
“I think you guys understand more than I do probably how much the library is needed in this community to supplement education programs within the community as libraries within our schools get smaller and smaller, and the staffing of them gets lighter and lighter,” said Tate, noting that all five members of the City Council have already endorsed Measure A. “The reliance on our County library gets heavier and heavier as we move forward.”
Tate added that he would like to see the Morgan Hill Library, currently opened Tuesday through Saturday, be opened on Mondays as well.
However, “there’s no possible way we could do that unless we pass this tax,” the mayor proclaimed.
Additionally, he said the collection of media and books would be 25 percent lighter without the tax funds.
“We really want to show heavy, heavy Morgan Hill support on this,” he concluded.
Community librarian Peggy Tomasso strengthened Tate’s stance by offering statistics as to what the Morgan Hill library, located at 660 West Main Ave., provides to the community. She stated the library circulates more than 841,000 items per year, welcomes more than 306,000 visits per year and hosted 484 library events in fiscal year 2011-12 with 20,050 attendees for such things as story time and other special events.
“This funding allows us to pay for our librarians and our services and our programs and our materials,” said Tomasso.
She also spoke about library’s Brainfuse Online Learning program, which offers assistance to students between 1 p.m. and 10 p.m. seven days a week from a computer at home (or at the library with bilingual tutors) for students in third grade through high school.
MHUSD Board Vice President Shelle Thomas responded that the MHUSD Board would work on a resolution for the next Aug. 13 school board meeting.
