When the City of Los Angeles had to close a $485 million budget deficit this spring, the public libraries found themselves on the chopping block.

The John C. Fremont Library in Hancock Park is one of the branches that has experienced cutbacks. (photo by Tim Posada)

More than 300 library employees were laid off, and service was cut dramatically at all 73 city libraries, with even the central library now closed Sundays and Mondays.

Now, the same city council that cut the Library Department’s funding has proposed writing an increase in funding for the library into the city’s charter, which would effectively prevent the council from making such cuts in the future.

Next Tuesday, the city council will vote on whether to put a measure onto the March ballot that would amend the city’s charter to increase the Library Department’s annual allotment from the city’s general fund by 70 percent. Voters would then have to approve the measure by a simple majority.

City Councilmember Tom LaBonge, 4th District, who co-sponsored the motion, said the increase would be enough to restore library service to 2009-2010 fiscal year levels, when regional libraries operated seven days a week, and branch libraries six days a week.

“This is the right thing to do,” LaBonge said. “Everybody loves the library, and nobody wants to see libraries shut down. Because of the budget crisis, we’ve had to reduce service. We want to make sure the library is getting a very good piece of the pie.”

Currently, the city charter only allots money from the city’s general fund to two departments: the Library Department and the Department of Recreation and Parks. Recreation and Parks is allotted 0.0325 percent of the general fund each year, while the libraries are allotted 0.0175 percent. The ballot initiative would increase the Library Department’s share to 0.03 percent of the general fund, which would have afforded the department an additional $53 million this fiscal year.

The increase in funding will be phased in over four years.

According to Peter Persic, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Public Libraries, the library had never been more popular before the budget cuts, but circulation and visits have dropped in the last fiscal year, from a circulation of 19 million in the 2008-2009 fiscal year to 18 million in the 2009-2010 fiscal year. Meanwhile, use of online library resources than can be remotely accessed has climbed during the same period.

“It’s really reduced the access people have not just to the collections, but also to resources like after-school programs and computers,” Persic said. “Access to computers is especially important in this economy, when people use the computers to look for jobs online and work on resumes, especially people who don’t have their own computers at home.”

The cuts to libraries faced vocal opposition from a variety of groups across the city, and City Council President Eric Garcetti, 13th District, said at the time that he thought the Library Department would be among the first to have its funding restored.

Still, some policy experts remain cautious about “ballot-box budgeting”. At the state level, voter-mandated allotments for certain departments and initiatives constrain lawmakers’ options when trying to pass a budget. In the future, if the city council had to close another budget gap, they would not be able to cut funding for the libraries without another voter-approved charter amendment.

Heather Rose, an adjunct fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, said there can be “unintended consequences” of designating certain percentages of the budget to specific departments.

“It constrains the decision-making process,” Rose said. “If districts have huge revenue shortfalls, they have to cut from somewhere else. I can imagine every group getting in there and saying how much money has to go to their particular area.”

When asked about the possibility of the charter amendment tying the council’s hands, LaBonge said the city would find other ways to become more efficient.

In fact, Jeff Jacobberger, chair of the Mid-City West Community Council, said tying the council’s hands was part of the appeal of the charter amendment. In years when budget cuts are necessary, Jacobberget said, it is always politically very difficult to cut funding from police or fire departments. Instead, libraries and other departments endure cuts.

“In many ways, libraries prove a real public safety benefit, because they offer safe places for young people to go and resources to engage them,” Jacobberger said. “This amendment is trying to put libraries on the same footing with police and fire.”