Morgan Hill
– A load of bad news was delivered Monday to the Gilroy
Library’s governing board.
County Librarian Melinda Cervantes announced a likely $2.6
million in cuts to the county library system’s operating budget,
which could mean libraries would be open fewer hours per week and
fewer books and materials would be available.
Morgan Hill – A load of bad news was delivered Monday to the Gilroy Library’s governing board.
County Librarian Melinda Cervantes announced a likely $2.6 million in cuts to the county library system’s operating budget, which could mean libraries would be open fewer hours per week and fewer books and materials would be available.
The Joint Powers Authority, made up of a council member from each city in the library system and County Supervisor Don Gage, met at Campbell’s downtown library to plan for the future of the Santa Clara County Library System. They are trying to find ways to staff and operate the county’s nine libraries and keep shelves filled with new materials in the face of the reductions.
The system includes Gilroy and Morgan Hill libraries. The JPA will decide on a final budget at its June 3 meeting with cuts being phased in at different times.
“When we know how much we have to work with,” Cervantes said, “we will draft maybe three schedules and ask the communities.”
Currently, the Gilroy Library is open 54 hours a week and is busiest in the evenings. The Gilroy library is “standing room only” during most evenings, Head Librarian Lani Yoshimura has said in the past. More than 1,000 people use the library each day and computer use is twice as high as it is in Morgan Hill.
Cervantes said it is possible that all libraries will close one common day – Monday is most likely – and that would benefit headquarters’ budget too, because it could also close for the day.
Cervantes outlined the problem.
“The present budget will include a 12 percent reduction for the year,” Cervantes said. “There will also be a revenue change from the governor’s property tax shift that would take $2.6 million more from our operating budget.”
That tax shift is based on a statewide loss of $90 million, Cervantes said.
“But we are hearing now that the shift statewide might be as much as $350 million instead of $90 million,” she said. In that case, the hit to county libraries would be almost four times as much.
Cervantes said operating costs have increased, too, from small incremental raises given to library clerks but mostly from PERS, the public employee’s retirement (and health benefit) system.
“It was the PERS impact to the tune of almost a million,” she said, that will cause a significant drain to the budget.
The defeat of Measure B in the March 2 election will also begin to make itself felt. A two-thirds majority vote was needed to extend the parcel tax that property owners pay to help operate the library system. Measure B would have boosted the tax by $8.34 to $42 a year, but the measure got only 61.7 percent of the vote. As a result, the tax will disappear entirely in June 2005. The parcel tax paid for 20 percent of the operating budget.
“The first effect we will see July 1 is the deletion of vacant positions and the spreading out of the 12 percent,” Cervantes said. “We will also see a reduction in the books and materials budget. A proposed reduction of service hours will take effect Nov. 1.”
Each community will be asked how it wants to handle libraries open only 30 hours a week, she said, by asking Library Commissions to get community opinion on what works for each.
Yoshimura was in a meeting Tuesday morning and could not be reached for comment on how she thought Gilroy’s library would weather the storm.
Cervantes said the JPA may not have enough information by June 3 to make a proper decision because two bits of information will be missing.
“First, the county offered an early retirement incentive to all county employees – which library employees are – and they must retire between April 7 and July 5,” Cervantes said.
Not knowing how many workers will voluntarily retire will unsettle the exact number of workers who must be involuntarily laid off.
The second missing bit is what will happen with the property tax shift. Santa Clara County officials met Wednesday afternoon with state officials and asked for a more fair and equitable shift, Cervantes said.
“Our lobbyists are actively trying to get the library system, as a special district, exempted from the property tax shift,” Cervantes said. “The JPA may need a special meeting in August or September if we get significant information out of Sacramento.”
The JPA will decide on the budget at its June 3 meeting, 1:30 p.m. at the Campbell Library.
Details: www.santaclaracountylib.org
