The residents of Copper had an opportunity to meet with District 5 Supervisor Darren Spellman on Thursday afternoon at Snaps Coffee House to discuss issues and learn of any progress relating to last weeks topics, ie: the future of Copper Library.
While the immediate future is not in question it remains a volatile subject when talking about the upcoming fiscal year. Spellman said he had spent some time last week researching expenditures within the general budget, the same budget that funds the 8 county libraries, and discovered a recent purchase for a new snow tractor at the cost of 400K and the purchase of 3 snow removal trucks at the cost of $500K. He noted that the county is under no known legal obligation to remove snow from roads and that the $900K price tag benefited only a small portion of the entire county.
He also pointed out that the libraries are not the only items tagged for review. The Williamson Act Subvention program was a program that granted farmers and ranchers breaks on their property taxes with the state making up the difference to the participating counties. In return the parcels were restricted to agricultural use and not allowed to develop. The Williamson Act helps to protect California’s $37 billion agricultural industry, preserve open space, control urban sprawl, provide habitat, and assist in the reduction of green house gases while providing counties with one of their few forms of discretionary funding to carry out critical programs for the state. The Subvention Act is slated for elimination. The County has not received subvention funding from the State in "years" says Spellman. The County is looking at potentially charging the land owners the total tax value of their land causing a potential loss of revenue from the ag industry.
Spellman said the total cost of running all 8 County libraries is approximately 160K/yr and the amount of money the County would gain in property taxes from taxing the large ag land owners is estimated at between 48K and 170K/per year. With the actual dollar amount to run the libraries, due to fund raisers etc, being much less than the total 160K and the value that ag brings to our economy, Spellman questions "which cuts will affect the largest population..." and whether the General Fund monies are being spent with the whole of the county residents best interests in mind.
"I am available every Thursday to Copperopolis residents at Snaps from 2;30 to 4:00...come to me now...be proactive...maybe we can save the libraries."
By, Charity Maness
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