Gilroy
– The county registrar has received more than 16,000 ballots a
week into the special mail-in election to fund the county library
system.
The ballot contains Measures A and B, which would assess
property taxes to fund the nine libraries in the county system,
including those in Gilroy and Morgan Hill.
Gilroy – The county registrar has received more than 16,000 ballots a week into the special mail-in election to fund the county library system.
The ballot contains Measures A and B, which would assess property taxes to fund the nine libraries in the county system, including those in Gilroy and Morgan Hill.
Measure A would extend for 10 years an annual $33.66 parcel tax and Measure B would levy an additional $12 annually. Measure B can not pass if Measure A fails.
All told, the registrar sent out 212,331 ballots last week. The registrar verifies ballots daily and makes public information on who has and has not voted. Supporters of the measures say they intend to use those lists to rally voters in the final days of the election. Votes will not be counted until voting is complete. The last day to register to vote in the election is Monday.
This is the second time the county library system has asked voters to extend the tax, which would raise $5.4 million and cover about 20 percent of the system’s budget. In March 2004, a measure fell six percentage points shy of the required two-thirds majority.
To prevent the parcel tax from expiring the library joint powers authority decided to spend $1.8 million to host a special election rather than place the measures on the consolidated ballot in November.
In March, the JPA spent $14,866.17 from the library system’s general fund on a campaign mailer. The front side of that mailer declared that the nine county libraries would close if the measures fail and was subsequently called misleading by some library advocates.
Santa Clara Supervisor Don Gage, who sits on the library board, said that future mailers will be financed with private money.
