Monday, July 6, 2009
Most Major Central Libraries Built with New Revenue Streams:
San Diego’s Proposed Approach Bucks Trend of Benchmark Cities
Many new central library projects undertaken since 1990 were financed with new taxes, according to a policy brief released today by the National University System Institute for Policy Research (NUSIPR).
The release of the report coincided with tomorrow’s City Council debate on whether to authorize “the Mayor to execute and deliver a Letter of Intent related to a proposed lease of two floors of the proposed New Main Library to the San Diego Unified School District for use as a public charter school. “
Intended to generate $20 million in lease revenues, the proposal in front of the City Council is intended to enable the city to break ground on a new central library without having to increase taxes.
NUSIPR surveyed 20 other cities identified in previous regional benchmarking studies conducted by the San Diego Association of Governments. Since 1991, five of these (San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Minneapolis, and Phoenix) have built entirely new facilities while two (Portland and Denver) undertook major renovations and expansion of existing facilities.
Of these, only Phoenix and San Jose built these facilities without obtaining voter approval for increased taxes to finance the construction of the projects. Moreover, Phoenix’s project cost a relatively modest $43 million during the mid-1990s while San Jose’s was built as a joint use project between the City and San Jose State University.
The others sought and won voter approved tax increases to finance the building programs. NUSIPR identified four cities (Seattle, Denver, Minneapolis, and San Francisco) where more than 70% of voters voted in the affirmative.
NUSIPR’s President W. Erik Bruvold stated, “We found strong evidence in our survey that all of these new libraries enjoyed overwhelming public support. Like San Diego, the local philanthropic community in these seven cities also played a significant role. What we did not find was a jurisdiction trying to do what the City of San Diego is proposing, building a new facility that is projected to cost over $100 million using only existing revenues.”
The policy brief goes onto suggest that, given other demands on existing revenue streams, it could be prudent for the Council to step back and re-examine whether trying to undertake a $100 million+ project without augmenting the city’s revenue stream is the most fiscally prudent course of action.
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