Library Depending on Tax Hike

If Santa Paula voters reject a proposed tax increase March 2, the city’s sole library may have to shut its doors at least two or three days a week, library officials said Monday.

Open since 1910, Blanchard Community Library now operates five days a week. With state budget cuts looming and expenses rising, the library’s board is advocating an increase of the library’s levy on property owners from $25 to $40 annually.

“We’ve already cut everything we can,� said Gene Marzec, a library board member who is directing the tax-hike campaign. “We’ve cut book acquisition in half. And I don’t know how we’re supposed to fix anything if it breaks down.�

Trimming the library’s hours would be yet another blow to Santa Paula, whose only hospital last week filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Over the years, the library has been so strapped that at times it operated just 18 hours a week. In 1993 and 2000, voters agreed to tax themselves to keep it going.

Officials said the library recently lost $54,000 because of state budget cuts and the depletion of its reserves. Additional state cuts are possible next year, they added.

“The money just isn’t there,� said Librarian Dan Robles, Blanchard’s only full-time employee. “Santa Paula has a very stagnant economy.�

The library’s budget in 1994 was $513,000, twice the previous year’s because of the tax measure approved by voters in 1993. Last year’s budget was slightly lower, at $512,000. The current year’s is about $475,000.

“We haven’t gone anywhere,� Robles said.

The library’s exterior was last painted 20 years ago. Inside, 30-year-old plastic furniture is falling apart.

Carpets of the same vintage are ripped, and the library has asked Home Depot for help replacing them.

“It would cost $13,000 that we just don’t have,� Robles said.

Blanchard is one of just about a dozen public libraries in California that operate independently of a municipality or a school district. Robles said most are in smaller towns which, like Santa Paula, don’t have the money to bail the libraries out over the long haul.