Measure M would restore library hours

Compared to some measures on next month’s ballot, an eighth-cent sales tax is relatively small.

But Measure M, if passed, would still generate an estimated $8 million to $10 million a year over the next 10 years – with all of it dedicated to the Sonoma County Library system.

That’s what’s needed to keep the county’s library system strong and to restore its hours of operation, according to Joanne Sanders, a former Sonoma mayor who represents the city on the newly formed Library Commission.

“When the recession hit and property tax values in Sonoma Valley plummeted … the revenue went down, and we rely mostly on property taxes that pay for the library system,” Sanders explained.

As a result, she said, “We had to cut the number of hours that the library is open.” Given that about 60 percent of the library system’s budget goes to salaries, the best way to handle a shortfall is to cut hours. These days, she said, “We’re closed on Mondays, we’re closed at 6:30 at night – we’re closed a lot.”

Measure M, placed on the Nov. 4 ballot by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, is designed to reverse that trend. The so-called Library Improvement Act would impose a 0.125 percent sales tax for 10 years “to restore and enhance library hours and services to benefit children, seniors and all residents of the county.” The measure requires a two-thirds majority to pass.

Brett Lear, appointed in May to run the library system as its new director, said the measure would give the system’s revenues – currently derived entirely from property taxes at around $14 million to $15 million per year – a long-overdue boost.

“We’re not exactly a county agency,” Lear said. “So we have our own property tax stream that’s set at about 22.5 cents per $1,000 in assessed property tax value.”

That means that for a property assessed at $500,000, for example, the owner pays a little over $112 a year to the county library system.

That’s been the case since the 1970s, he said, and “We just haven’t found any additional revenue since then,” despite the fact that “libraries provide more services than they did 35 years ago.”

Those services include public access to technology, an array of literacy programs for children and adults, and a variety of events and workshops – from art to robotics – for county residents of all ages.

If Measure M passes, Lear said, the county library system would enhance these services. But topping the list is restoring the hours of operation that were cut in 2011.

“What we’re committed to do is reopening on Mondays,” Lear said. The director also hopes to “add evening hours across the board, and expand weekend hours.”

Branch hours don’t have to be scheduled the same in every community, Lear said, so long as they total up to the same number of hours per week.

Also on the wish list, library leaders hope to “Enhance the (book) collection,” Lear said. “Some of the wait lines on some of the popular titles are quite long.” Building maintenance costs, pension obligations and other normal expenditures round out the library system’s list of needs.

Locally, the Sonoma Valley branch at 755 W. Napa St. is in good shape compared to many others in the county, Sanders said. This is in part due to the fact that the city of Sonoma owns the library building, which was upgraded three years ago with a new roof, lighting and parking.

On top of that, the nonprofit Friends of the Sonoma Valley Library “is the envy of the entire Sonoma County library system,” Sanders said. “They are extremely adept at raising money … supporting the library in ways that enhance its services for the public.”

Even so, she said, the entire system must work together – and under the system’s newly written rules, devised along with a newly reconstituted county commission, money that is raised locally cannot go to increasing only a local branch’s hours.

Lear said he is confident Measure M has a fighting chance of passing, despite the high two-thirds threshold required.

“I know that this community loves their libraries, so if people get out there and vote I think it’s OK. It’s for a good cause, that’s for sure.”

Dan Drummond, executive director of the Sonoma County Taxpayers Association – which often opposes new government taxes – was not immediately available for comment. The group has not made a public statement regarding Measure M.

For more on the campaign to pass Measure M, see yes4sonomacountylibrary.org.