February 6, 2008

District 6 Report

Three-day-a-week services?

By Councilmember Pierluigi Oliverio
Special to the Times

Mayor Reed held his State of the City Address on Jan. 14. I believe the mayor was forthright by clearly stating that San Jose has a large deficit, and that cuts to services and layoffs are before us. In fact, I believe that the current $65 million budget deficit will worsen and grow to $75 million.

Just look at what is happening. Consumer spending is down, which affects sales tax revenues. Fewer properties are selling, which affects the conveyance tax. Property values are plummeting, which affects property tax revenues now and these revenues to the city will be even lower next year. The current deficit is larger then the entire Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services budget and more then twice the size of the Library and Graffiti Abatement budgets combined.

That same day as the mayor’s speech I attended the Library Commission where the impact of the budget deficit was discussed.  All departments except public safety are being asked to find 22 percent of their budgets to cut. For the library, this means $5.3 million out of an approximate $28 million budget. Public Safety’s will be somewhat smaller at 3.5 percent.

One idea raised at the meeting and quickly approved by the Library Commission is to double the fine for late books and videos. The fines would go from 25 cents a day to 50 cents a day and the maximum fine would increase to $20. This could raise $800,000. (Ass-uming library pat-rons do not change their behavior and still return their books late. Inevitably, if a fee or fine is increased it will change be-havior and thus fewer fines may occur.)

Nonetheless, even with this fee increase, it still leaves $4.5 million for the library director to cut.

Last year, the library spent around $3.5 million on books, magazines and videos, including $500,000 on non-English items. The materials budget fluctuates each year based on revenue that is dependent on you and I buying and selling homes and a parcel tax on homeowners.

If the city no longer bought books, we would still be $1 million short. And this option would not even close the gap, since the money for books is somewhat restricted and cannot be spent on anything besides materials.

The other option on the table is to reduce hours—actually, reduce days—for the neighborhood branch libraries. The thought is to have neighborhood libraries open only three days a week, with the various branch libraries rotating days. For example, the Almaden Library would be open Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and closed the rest of the week. Then the Cambrian Library would be open Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Today our neighborhood branch libraries are open five-and-a-half days a week. Incidentally, they have seen increasing book circulation, and more residents using the computer services as unemployment rises.

Please note that the three city-owned golf courses have not cut their hours, and are open all week in case you want to take your kids there to do their homework or read their library books.

This is just one example of how you may be affected starting in July when the council adopts a budget in June.

If you have any ideas on how the city could save money or make money, please share your ideas with me at Pierluigi.Oliverio@SanJoseCa.gov.