By Linda Taaffe

The Santa Clara County Library District is asking voters to go to the polls one more time to pull the library system out of financial crisis following last March’s defeated bond election that would have extended about $5.4 million annually in supplemental funding beyond this June.

The Joint Powers Authority, which governs the Santa Clara County Library, agreed Jan. 27 to move forward with an initiative that will extend the current parcel another 10 years through a special mail election.

Registered voters in Milpitas, Campbell, Cupertino, Gilroy, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Monte Sereno, Morgan Hill, Saratoga and unincorporated areas are scheduled to begin receiving ballots in the mail by April 5. All ballots must be submitted to the Registrar of Voters by May 3.

There are two measures on the ballot. Measure A would continue the $33.66 current parcel tax levied annually on single-residential families for another 10 years. If the tax passes, all nine library sites, including two in Los Altos, will be able to maintain their current service levels, said County Librarian Melinda Cervantes.

Measure B would increase the annual tax by $12 and restore the library system to last year’s levels before state cuts forced the county to reduce library hours, materials and programs.

Cervantes said the assessment tax appears to be the only option for long-term funding since the state government cut 44 percent of the operational budget in the early 1990s.

The tax, first approved in 1995, has enabled the library to continue service levels as they were before the state redirected about 44 percent of the county’s operations budget.

Both intiatives need a two-thirds majority vote to pass. Cervantes said voters need to approve Measure A before Measure B can pass.