Supes Fund Libraries Shortfall with Cannabis Money

The $6.5 million the County of Santa Barbara has collected in cannabis tax revenues this first fiscal year, a far cry from the bright-eyed $25 million of early estimates, is being tapped to pay for libraries, a use Supervisor Steve Lavagnino said Tuesday morning was well within the meaning of “general governmental programs” for the use of the taxes. 

That the revenue was available made a difference in Tuesday’s debate compared to the battles for library money in recent years. So did the relatively small shortfall, as serious funding from the libraries’ cities as well as from their respective Friends of the Library was also forthcoming, except for Montecito, which with the libraries in Orcutt and Vandenberg Village needed another $68,500 to keep the doors open.

The fever pitch that ensued in 2017 when Santa Barbara raised fees to the libraries under its management has been tamed in part by Goleta forming Library Zone 4 and taking under its wing the four small libraries in the Santa Ynez Valley. But, as Community Services financial whiz Ryder Bailey pointed out, if county funding didn’t rise every year, the libraries — whose funding is not automatically tied to inflation — essentially lost money to rising costs every year. That’s what gave Vandenberg Village its $11,000 deficit, Lompoc librarian Sarah Bleyl explained after the meeting. “I am really grateful I didn’t have to make the hard choice of when to close Vandenberg Village,” Bleyl said of the library that is only open 24 hours a week.