Council asks library task force to reunite and find out what the
community will support
Gilroy – City residents were willing to pay $2 a year for a shot at a new public library, but would they be willing to pay $200?
The answer to that question could emerge in coming months, once officials resurrect a task force to explore the possibility of a bond measure or other options to relieve pressure at the city’s over-crowded and aging library.
The city’s best chance to replace the current library with a state-of-the-art facility was swept away last month, when state voters rejected a $600 million bond proposal to finance projects across California. Proposition 81 would have meant less than $2 a year in taxes for each state resident. Had it passed, local officials were confident they would secure $14 million from the state to finance the new facility. They planned to pair those funds with $7 million in local tax dollars.
The state funds are no longer available but the library dream is not quite dead. City councilmen looking to craft spending priorities have decided to ask the library task force to reunite after a four-year rest and take the pulse of the community.
“We agreed they would start doing a survey to see what would or would not fly,” Mayor Al Pinheiro said. “Would a bond be something that would fly? They need to validate what the existing plans are and … what the alternatives are.”
A library bond would not fly, predicted Bob Dillon, a former city councilman and library commissioner who strongly backed Proposition 81.
“On the state vote, it’s everybody voting as a state, but on the local level, you have people voting to tax themselves,” Dillon said. “Everybody looks at the state as free money, but when it comes to taxing themselves, I don’t think they’ll go for it.”
It remains unclear what kind of tax burden a new library would mean, though the cost of the facility would likely come in higher than the original $22 million estimate. That figure was derived before the Gulf Coast hurricanes drove fuel and construction prices through the roof.
While it is too early to say how much a library tax would be, Gilroy Head Librarian Lani Yoshimura believes residents would willingly pay. In June 2005, for instance, Gilroyans overwhelmingly supported the renewal of a $33.66 parcel to maintain library staffing levels, and also voted strongly in support of a new $12 tax to restore prior cuts. The latter tax was narrowly defeated due to low voter turnout and strong opposition in Milpitas, one of the nine member cities of the regional library system.
“The one thing I sense about this is that if you’re building it locally, the money doesn’t go anywhere else,” Yoshimura said. “With the state measure, the money may not come here and you’re taking a chance. With the bond, the money is local, stays here and doesn’t go to some other jurisdiction. In that case there’s a confidence for people.”
Library Commissioner Phyllis Armenta supported the idea of a bond, without which she said the library has few options. The $7 million budgeted by the city is too little to repair the facility’s dilapidated heating, ventilation and air conditioning, much less expand the physical space for books. Armenta said that a lack of funding for staff would prevent relocation of the children’s section, for instance, to another space to relieve pressure at the current library.
The Gilroy library currently serves 1,600 people and contains 130,000 books, videos and other materials – nearly double the amount is was built to hold. The 53,500 square foot facility proposed to replace the current library at Sixth and Rosanna streets would hold 266,000 items.
The task force has yet to be re-formed and several past members could not be reached before deadline. City council members hope the group’s work will help them prioritize more than $100 million in unfunded liabilities – major public projects with no immediate source of funding. The list of priorities include cracked sidewalks, broken storm drains and alleys filled with garbage and potholes.
