Supporters of a library bond measure on the June 7 ballot hope residents across Santa Cruz County will get behind the $62 million proposal for the good of everyone in the county.
According to data from the Santa Cruz Public Library system, which is not involved in the campaign, the most recent new library — the Scotts Valley Branch — was built in 2011. The oldest of the 10 branches was built in 1892 and five others were built before 1975.
“I would say all of them have a need for significant improvements. It’s kind of a story of deferred maintenance over time and aging facilities,” said Cynthia Mathews, a volunteer with the campaign behind the bond measure — Our Libraries Are Our Future.
Mathews, who is also mayor of Santa Cruz, said the $62 million bond would update eight branches and build two new ones for Felton and Capitola.
“Pretty much all the branches need electrical wiring that can accommodate — computers,” she said with a wry chuckle during an interview Tuesday. “Access for the public to fast, reliable internet and online services is these days a core function of libraries.”
The bond measure needs two-thirds of county voters to pass and that includes voters in Watsonville, which has its own library system. Mathews said the privately-funded volunteer campaign is aware that they must educate residents from all over the county about just how many people use the library system.
“What we actually know is that there’s a huge crossover of users. They may work in one place, live in another,” Mathews said, adding that library programming serves seniors, early readers, school children, and community groups. “It serves a huge variety of users and, almost counter-intuitively, usership is going up in our libraries.”
The bond would be repaid through a flat parcel tax that is applied to all county landowners — not including agricultural or commercial properties — equally, according to Our Libraries Are Our Future volunteer J.M. Brown.
“What this does, is sort of even the playing field a little bit, which is really important for communities like Felton,” Brown said. “When you think about, ‘Why do I want to buy-in with my tax money to something that’s going to fund a branch in other areas?’, it’s that idea that we’re such a small county it really makes sense to make decisions on a regional level. Because we’re all investing in our larger community in that regard.”
Brown added that because of the way the bond is written, the money can only be used for the library system infrastructure and not be pulled away for other uses.
“Really this mechanism creates equity across the county in terms of libraries,” he said.
Mathews said that it is clear that county residents already support the library system, having handily voted for a quarter-cent sales tax in 2008 to fund library operations and collections.
“I know people look carefully at every revenue measure but I think the bang for the buck on this is impressive and it’s an investment,” she said. “It really creates a standard of library services for our whole community.”
It’s a message Mathews believes the voters will understand on election day, June 7.
“I think that people understand the benefit to their community and to the whole system and that it’s an investment in the infrastructure of our system so that we can realize our potential,” she said. “It’s not just the books on the shelf — it’s wonderful programs.”
