© 2024 KVPR | Valley Public Radio - White Ash Broadcasting, Inc. :: 89.3 Fresno / 89.1 Bakersfield
89.3 Fresno | 89.1 Bakersfield
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Double your impact! New monthly gifts are matched through March 19. Give now.

Kern County Libraries Hope For a Boost From A New Tax On June's Ballot

Kerncountylibrary.org
Beale Memorial Library

Public libraries are often seen as important pillars of knowledge and sources of civic pride. But in Kern County, they are struggling to keep their doors open. Now, voters have a chance to establish a dedicated funding stream for their libraries for the first time.

A June 7th vote on Measure F could be a test of community support for their library system.

At the Beale Memorial Library in Bakersfield, Seven-year-old Emmy Sperber practices her reading as her father Jason looks on.

He says they are in the library several times a week reading books and working on homework but he is dismayed to watch some Kern County libraries cut their hours and close their doors.

“Certain branches in other neighborhoods were open one to two days a week. I grew up in Los Angeles and it was just unfathomable to me that there was no funding to keep every community’s library open all week,” Sperber says.

Credit Linda Fiddler, Advocates for Library Enchancement
Volunteers prepare fliers for Measure F

Sperber is an unabashed supporter of Measure F, which would levy a one-eighth-cent sales tax to fund the county’s libraries.

If successful, the tax would create a dedicated source of funding worth upwards of $15 million a year.

Currently, the county’s 24 public libraries receive around $7 million a year from the county’s general fund, a figure that is going down every year due to county budget cuts.

Miranda Lomeli-O’Reilly Is with the pro-Measure F group Advocates for Library Enhancement.

She is frustrated by a library system she thinks is outdated and wildly behind other counties.

Credit Linda Fiddler, Advocates for Library Enchancement
Miranda Lomeli-O'Reilly (left)

  

“It would revolutionize our libraries. It would add much need days, programs for children and teens, and much-needed technology,” Lomeli-O’Reilly says.

Kern County does fund its libraries at per capita rates much lower than other California counties. According to the county, they spend about $8 per person compared to the statewide average of $24.

A sales tax dedicated to libraries is not unheard of in the valley. For example, Fresno County has a sales tax funding its libraries. The head librarian there says the dedicated funding stream has been crucial to their planning and services.

Kern libraries, on the other hand, have never had a dedicated funding source and Jason Weiber with the County says that means they have had to jockey with other agencies for every dollar.

“So they are in competition with public safety. They are competition with parks, veteran’s services, personnel services,” Weiber says.

Kern County also has been hammered by low oil prices depriving them needed tax revenue that the industry generates.

The county is now looking to cut every department budget by 5-percent for each of the next three years. That would equate to about $350,000 less each year for the libraries. Weiber says it is highly likely that would lead to fewer hours and potentially layoffs.

Credit Linda Fiddler, Advocates for Library Enchancement
Ella Busby (unlikely to actually vote)

I caught up with Jason Cairns the head librarian of the Beale Memorial Library on his lunch break.

He says they had to scale back services and leave open positions unfilled because of a lack of money.

“And so it is really hard to serve the public when our doors are closed. So that has been a big challenge. Reduced Hours. Also reduced staffing. That has really impacted service because we are already stretched thin as it is,” Cairns says.

The county board of supervisors took the unusual step of adding the tax to the ballot after strong public backlash emerged against a plan to hand management of the libraries over to a private company.

However, the vote is far from a sure thing.

“The needs of the Kern County Library System aren’t really the question. There are plenty. Measure F is not the correct answer,” says Michael Turnipseed is with the group Kern County Taxpayers Association.

He opposes the tax because he says not all $15 million raised will go to library services and that simply spending more on staff and books doesn’t necessarily mean better services for the community.

“We are not looking at 1950 libraries anymore. We look at this as a fork in the road and where our libraries should be going. All this is doing is perpetuating the same operation model,” Turnipseed said.

Measure F would need a two-thirds majority to pass.

County Supervisor David Couch is also against the tax.

In a video posted on his website, he says he supports libraries but points out the tax will be paid by people who don’t use the library and that there is not enough accountability about how the money will be spent.

“I think that is pretty important. If you are going to ask the voters and the taxpayers to pay more, they should know exactly what they are going to get and how the money is going to be used,” Couch says.

In the meantime, Advocates for Library Enhancement say they have raised more than $75,000 dollars in donations.

They are using that money to print yard signs and canvass door-to-door around the county.

The vote is on the June 7th primary ballot.

Jeffrey Hess is a reporter and Morning Edition news host for Valley Public Radio. Jeffrey was born and raised in a small town in rural southeast Ohio. After graduating from Otterbein University in Columbus, Ohio with a communications degree, Jeffrey embarked on a radio career. After brief stops at stations in Ohio and Texas, and not so brief stops in Florida and Mississippi, Jeffrey and his new wife Shivon are happy to be part Valley Public Radio.