Friday, May 9, 2003 | 11:24 a.m.
Proponents of a $50.6 million library bond issue on next month's general election ballot say the time is right to add four new branches to the Las Vegas-Clark County district. Local library checkouts are up by nearly two-thirds and existing facilities are bearing the burden of that growth.
But opponents say this is no time to raise property taxes, even for something as noble as libraries. School programs are looking at sweeping cutbacks and too many people are financially strapped because of the slumping economy.
Voters in Las Vegas and unincorporated Clark County will decide the issue June 3. Early voting begins May 17 and continues through May 30.
In addition to building and outfitting for four new libraries, the bond issue would provide $9 million a year for operating expenses, as well as paying for technology upgrades to other facilities. The tax, to be spread over 30 years, would add an average of $8.82 per year for each $100,000 of property.
But that won't happen if the election follows local and national trends.
Last year 60 percent of library bond issues in the United States were approved -- the lowest percentage in many years, said Mary Jo Lynch, director of the Office for Research and Statistics for the American Library Association in Chicago. That compares with 80 percent in 2001 and 91 percent in 2000, she said.
In the past two November elections Henderson voters have rejected library bonds.
"It has got to be reflective of the economy," Lynch said. "Still, the bonds that were passed in 2002 added $236,586,317 to libraries nationwide. That shows that people are willing to vote for library bonds and additional taxes if they feel they are getting their money's worth."
When voters take a good look at what is being offered, Las Vegas-Clark County Library District Executive Director Daniel Walters said he thinks they will see it is a bargain that will boost the district, which has 2.2 million books, compact discs and videotapes and 428 employees.
"Voters had the vision to pass (library bond issues) in 1985 and 1991, which have given us virtually everything we have today," he said. "And when people study this (question) they will see that we have taken steps to minimize costs and are offering quality facilities and equitable access to services."
The 1985 bond was for $15 million in local funds and $7.2 million in state money. It was used to build six libraries and renovate another. The 1991 bond was for $70 million for construction costs and $10 million for library materials. Seven libraries were built and two were renovated.
Walters said the 2001 bond issue proposal, which was killed by the county's Debt Management Commission, offered to build the four libraries for $46 million. Two years from now, he said, the same libraries will cost $52 million. "They won't get any cheaper," Walters said.
In the past three years, checkouts have risen by 63 percent, a strong indication that "more people are using our libraries," Walters said.
If the bond issue is approved, the property tax on the new libraries would be phased in while the property tax and debt from the 1985 and 1991 bonds are retired.
Walters said that will limit the burden on the area's taxpayers. The maximum amount per $100,000 of property would be slightly more than $10 for only about three years, he said.
Marzette Lewis, longtime local education activist and an outspoken critic of Walters, said with the economy in "terrible condition," she does not see how voters can support more libraries at this time.
"I have always done everything I could to see that a child gets a book anyway he can, but with so many people out of work, the school district cutting programs and the economy being so unsteady, this is wrong," Lewis said. "If this was four or five years ago when the economy was real good, I'd be out there drumming up support for more libraries. But not now.
"Every school has a library and computer labs. As poor as I am, I own a home computer and have Internet service. My 10- and 12-year-old grandchildren have access to home computers and the Internet and use their school libraries."
Lewis, president of the Westside Action Alliance Korps-Uplifting People -- WAAK-UP -- demonstrated with about a dozen people against the measure Thursday night at the Las Vegas Library on Las Vegas Boulevard and plans another protest next Thursday night when the library board meets there.
Residents of Henderson, North Las Vegas and Boulder City have their own city library districts and will not vote on the issue.
Lewis is a resident of North Las Vegas, but also a regular patron of the West Las Vegas Library in the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District.
Three of the four proposed library branches would be built in urban Las Vegas/Clark County.
Once those facilities are built and open, nearly every urban resident in the district will live within two miles of at least one library, Walters said.
In the first phase, to be completed in 2006, one 15,000-square-foot library would open in Mesquite, replacing an existing 2,800-square-foot library there.
Also in that first phase, a 25,000-square-foot library would be built in the northwest community of Centennial Hills, near Centennial Parkway and Buffalo Drive, and a 15,000-square-foot facility would open adjacent to Moore Elementary School on Lamb Boulevard.
In Phase 2, a 25,000 square-foot library would open in 2009 at Compass Point in southwest Clark County, near Windmill Parkway and Rainbow Boulevard.
Statistically speaking, Las Vegas woefully trails cities of its size in numbers of libraries.
For example, King County, Wash., which includes Seattle, and has a population of 1.12 million, has 43 libraries; San Diego, with a population of 1.3 million, has 34 libraries; and Broward County, Fla., with 1.6 million residents, has 36 libraries, Lynch said, quoting from the 2002 Public Library Data Statistical Report.
Walters, who was raised in Seattle and got his library degree at the University of Washington, said his district has no plans to try to catch up with those cities.
He noted that Seattle and other communities with densely packed populations and good mass transit, have many smaller libraries with as few as 15 parking spaces. That would not be practical in automobile-dependent Southern Nevada, he said.
"We are looking to build fewer but larger facilities that meet many needs," Walters said.
A bone of contention is that the question is being placed on the ballot in a year when there are no statewide or national office races -- just municipal elections, where voter turnout traditionally is much lower. In fact, in unincorporated Clark County, people are being asked to go to the polls with just the library question on the ballot.
"Our other two bond issues were passed in years when there was only municipal elections," Walters said, noting that a library bond question is most appropriate for municipal elections.
"People focus on local races, like for judges, or civic and educational issues, during municipal elections," he said. "And bond issues generally do better in the spring."
Lewis said this election, which will cost the Library District $300,000 to $400,000 -- win or lose -- is "government waste at its worst."
"This is so unfair to taxpayers," she said. "To put just one question on a ballot is crazy because a lot of people are not going to go to the polls to vote for just one question."
Lewis said her group will hand out fliers at shopping centers, hold protests to attract news media attention, speak on radio talk shows and go door-to-door to try to defeat the measure.
Walters said the cost of failure would be a burden on the system and in the long run could wind up being a bigger burden on area residents.
"If it does not pass, we will face the inevitability of increased stress on existing branches and we will have neighborhoods that pay taxes for libraries but will not have libraries reasonably close to their neighborhoods," he said. "We will continue to provide services, but we will not have the cash to make capital improvements or keep up with the wear and tear.
Las Vegas Library patron Dan Fitch said he supports the bond issue and, if he had to he'd "give up three packs of cigarettes a year" to contribute. The cost of those smokes is about what the extra tax would total for the average homeowner.
"If you build more libraries now you wind up needing to build fewer jails down the road -- that's how important it is to have enough libraries and the impact they have on kids," Fitch said.
"A lot of people today have computers and the Internet, but you can't beat the personal touch of a library," he said. "They enrich our lives tremendously."
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