IT SOMETIMES TAKES the threat of losing an old friend to make you appreciate just how much you need him, and so it has been with the announced closing of the H.P. Wright Library in Ventura.

A source of comfort, entertainment, and a home away from home for many Venturans, the Wright is a victim of budget cutbacks in the County Library System. The closing has sparked an uprising of sorts in Ventura which has secretly pleased me. To see an organized effort of this sort for a facility of knowledge is truly remarkable in an age when so many other things compete for our attention.

Long supportive of efforts by the San Buenaventura Friends of the Library to privately raise money to keep the facility open, I recently joined a group of my fellow Venturans on the newly convened Ventura Library Plan Steering Committee.

In these dog days of budget cuts, our group of motivated citizens is the substitute for the $100,000 library plan exercise axed from the city's budget last year.

"It's time to have this conversation and see it through to the end," Deputy Mayor Bill Fulton told us last week.

The Wright is losing its lease from Ventura College in 2015 and chances are it won't be renewed. A smaller facility than the E.P. Foster Library Downtown, it's unable to house the collections of both libraries and does not have a meeting room or computer center. The much smaller Avenue Library receives money from federal sources. So the Wright was targeted for closure by the county in an effort to consolidate and save money it doesn't have any more.

But it's the most popular library in the city, with a circulation of 210,556, thus the uprising.

San Buenaventura Friends of the Library has raised enough money to keep the facility open until late October. If the Ventura sales tax measure passes in November, with the added revenue, the facility could potentially stay open until the lease is up in 2015, at least. If not, well, it's likely the Friends will give up the effort and the facility will close.

A DENIZEN OF THE EAST END, I must admit to traveling more frequently to the Oxnard Library when my children were very young in the late '90s. A larger, newer facility with a better children's collection, the city-run library had predictable hours, which our three Ventura libraries have never had. The now-closed bookstore Adventures for Kids drew us out as well.

But we've also spent time in the comfy beanbag chairs at the Wright, talked to the friendly librarians who obviously love their jobs, and watched the students trail over from Foothill High after school.

The city has property available in the Community Park on Kimball Road near the 126 Freeway to build a large, new facility for the entire city, but doesn't have the funding identified. I envy the cities of Camarillo and Oxnard for their new state-of-the art facilities. In 1997, a comprehensive study recommended the city withdraw from the County Library System altogether, but we never followed through.

LIbraries of the future may need to look very different than they do today. Books can be downloaded digitally and reference materials are available online. When surveyed, our group lamented the lack of community programs and activities offered in Ventura libraries. Meeting facilities, an auditorium and possibly a coffee/juice bar would be great additions.

Our group has a big, lumpy piece of clay to mold. Citizen input will be very important. The entire community is being invited to weigh in. The idea is to have a strategic plan to present to the council by May of 2010.

Your constructive thoughts are welcomed in this space, or you can send me an email.

Update: As predicted, the state budget will be "balanced" in part by taking revenue from local governments. Read Timm Herdt's story here.

ALTHOUGH THE IDEA of increasing Ventura's sales tax in a recession may not be playing well in all corners, if the measure passes in November, it will generate an extra estimated $8 million annually over the next four years that all stays in Ventura. Currently only a small percentage of the sales tax we pay stays local.

This comes as the governor and our legislators have devised various methods of snatching even more local revenues. The May revise floated a proposal to borrow eight percent of property tax receipts from cities, counties, and special districts received in 2008‑09. Another recent scheme was proposed to divert gas tax money up to Sacramento that is used to maintain local streets. It's no wonder that the League of California Cities is up in arms against these deals.

Two other bills, SB 80 and SB 3x 29, would send redevelopment agency money to K-12 schools that cities now use for construction projects. Last year the California Redevelopment Association successfully sued the state to stop a similar bill.

City officials recently estimated Ventura could lose nearly $3 million in revenues to Sacramento on top of the difficult $11 million in service cuts and pay reductions already made to balance the current two-year budget.

The proposed 1/2-cent sales tax increase, which will sunset in four years, will cost each resident 22 cents a day, according to the city's finance staff. With a majority vote required and not a 2/3, it's similar to general-use measures recently passed in the neighboring cities of Oxnard and Port Hueneme.

THE SPENDING PLAN for the proposed revenue increase was outlined by staff and voted on by Council Monday night. It's a list of priority items which have suffered in the recent round of cuts:

• 40 percent will go to public safety, which will include restoring and supplementing our roving Medic Engine 10 service and the Downtown foot patrols. Recent requests for federal COPS grants were not successful.
• 35 percent will go to street repair, infrastructure maintenance, parks and public transit.
• 15 percent will go toward clean and safe beaches, which will include money to help Pierpont Beach residents with their weighty sand issues and more to help the city meet new costly federal and state water quality requirements.
• 6 percent will go to supplement county funding for our libraries.
• 4 percent will go toward maintaining and building effective community partnerships, which include social services grants and cultural grants to local non-profits.
  

An 11-member citizen advisory committee would be appointed to oversee the expenditures. Recent polling and past voting on Measure P6 shows the new measure has a decent chance of passage. 

As the current dysfunction in Sacramento goes on, it's a safe bet that school districts, cities and counties will work for more local control of funds.

A RECENT POLL conducted by True North, Inc. confirmed what I already knew: Ventura voters are content here and are willing to invest in their city.

Despite a round of new temporary taxes from the state, nearly 60 percent of those surveyed said they would likely vote for a temporary 1/2-cent hike in the city sales tax to support public safety, libraries, local infrastructure, economic-generating activities and building financial reserves.

This figure has held steady through surveys conducted in May of 2007 and December of 2008. True North talked to 400 likely voters between May 27-31 of this year. (The survey had a 4.86 point margin of error.) The sample was "a perfect representation of your voting electorate," True North President Timothy McLarney explained.

What else did they find? Seventy-five percent are somewhat or very satisfied with the job the City of Ventura is doing to provide services. Sixty-one percent feel things are going in the right direction in our city, compared with 22 percent who weren't sure and 21 percent who thought they were going in the wrong direction.

The state didn't fair as well in the poll, however, with only 11 percent responding that California in general was going in the right direction.

And just who is the typical Ventura voter? She's more likely to be female, over age 50, own her own home and have lived in the city at least 15 years. She isn't too worried about finances and is a Democrat. She doesn't own a business here.

THE CITY COUNCIL will make the final decision on the sales tax measure at its June 22 meeting. The Citizen Blue Ribbon Budget Committee, a 15-member group appointed by the council, voted in March to recommend the measure be placed on the fall ballot.

The 1/2 cent sales tax increase would sunset in four years and would be used to support the essential services recommended by the committee, which the poll respondents also responded favorably to.

Ventura CFO Jay Panzica explained that the increased sales tax rate would cost approximately 22 cents per day for each resident and would generate nearly $10 million a year. Ventura's sales tax is now at the state minimum. Currently, for each dollar residents and visitors pay in, the city only receives 9.82 cents back, Panzica said. The lure of the new measure is that 100 percent of the increase would stay right here in Ventura.

After cutting its budget $11 million this year and $6 million in 2008, the city stands to lose another $2.8 million in the current city revenue grab proposed by the governor.

"If we choose not to put this on the ballot ... then we will be surrendering our destiny to the vagaries of Sacramento for the next few years," Councilmember Bill Fulton said.

Update: All the questions for the survey and the sampling method used can be found here:

vensalestaxreport0609.pdf

VENTURA CITIZENS WILL HAVE one more thing to vote on this fall if the advice of the Citizen Blue Ribbon Budget Committee is taken by the Ventura City Council, as it surely will be.

On an 11-4 vote, the 15-member group decided to recommend a 1/2-cent sales tax measure be placed on the November ballot. Since it will not dedicate funds for a specific purpose, it will only require a simple majority vote. However, the group voted to ask that priority be given to public safety, infrastructure, libraries, and economic revitalization, in addition to shoring up the city's reserves. The measure would sunset in four years.

Watching the committee push this tax measure out was sort of like watching natural childbirth when you already knew it was going to be a boy. It was a bit difficult to watch at times and of course there was the requisite huffing and puffing.

In a speech that would do Grover "Let's drown government in a bathub" Norquist proud, one committee member wished wrack and ruin on the entire city. It goes without saying he was one of the four voting no.

As always, these citizen committees are good theater. I just wish more folks would show up to add their thoughts. I counted 12 in the audience tonight, if you subtracted the three city employees, and the Star blogger and reporter. Last week there were about six speakers. At the recent special budget presentation at City Hall, 41 showed up, but I recognized many of those as city employees and volunteers.

I think  "American Idol" has started up again on Wednesday nights. That must be it.

I DO COMMEND THESE 15 folks for doing their homework and polling their acquaintances on their thoughts. And while I didn't agree with some of the speakers, especially those who were particularly hostile and got their facts mixed up, they cared enough to participate. Good for them.

Committee member Bob Berry wondered out loud why they were even there: "I think the City Council is looking for cover."

I was especially impressed with the comments made by Committee Vice Chair Michael Case, while speaking to trust issues. Case once ran for Congress against Elton Gallegly. "Government is very transparent as compared to business," Case pointed out. "The government is merely an extension of us. Even though I've had differences with city officials, I realize they're trying to do their best."

And it was nice to see former Ventura City Manager Ed McCombs again. "This is a much more vital and exciting city -- one that offers a whole lot more to its citizens than when I moved here in 1970," McCombs said. "But when budgets are cut and cut, you lose a lot of things quickly."

The timing of this sales tax measure is terrible, coming after May's multitude of tax-related state ballot measures. It will share ballot space with the view initiative and the anti-big box ordinance, not to mention City Council and Board of Education races.

Given Ventura's propensity for dotting every square inch of public space with campaign signs, these extra measures will surely add to the visual pollution.

If only our citizens had such enthusiam for public meetings to discuss their future.