Supervisors May Add to Red Ink on Library District’s Books

State budget cuts have left the independent Palos Verdes Peninsula Library District short $340,000 this year, and the worst may be yet to come.

Officials say the district could lose as much as $968,000 more from its $4.5 million budget, depending on what action the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors takes in the coming weeks.

If the worst comes to pass, the district could be forced to close its two branch libraries and reduce the operating hours of the central library in Rolling Hills Estates. Library Director Linda P. Elliott said a third of the library staff might also have to be laid off.

Even if the supervisors do not cut district funds, the loss of the $340,000 in state money will force reduced hours at the branch libraries and a 35% cutback in the district’s materials budget, she said.

Elliott said there is no way to tell how much the library district will get from the supervisors this year because it must compete with dozens of other special districts for a shrinking pot of funds called the Los Angeles County Special District Augmentation Fund.

The money comes from property taxes collected in the special districts that provide everything from fire protection to flood control, garbage collection, mosquito abatement and library services.

The county collects the special district taxes and puts the money in the augmentation fund. The supervisors then decide how to divide the fund among the competing districts.

Because the Palos Verdes library district is almost totally dependent on property taxes and was hardest hit by Proposition 13, it normally gets more back than it contributes. Last year it received $968,000, a whopping $543,000 more than it put into the fund.

This is the money that is “at risk” this year, Elliott explained. The supervisors could send the $968,000 to other districts deemed more needy, or it could send some or all of it back to Palos Verdes.

“We have no way of knowing just how much we will be getting,” Elliott said.

No matter what happens with the budget, the district’s planned $16-million library expansion will continue on schedule, Elliott said. The project, which will double the size of the central library, is being funded by general obligation bonds.