To all AzLA members,

As you know, the budget passed the House and Senate last week. Although the legislature is currently holding it and has not yet transmitted to the Governor, the Senate assigned 250 bills on Thursday with more to come.

Senator Waring's SB 1421 Secondary Levy Limits, is scheduled for the Finance Committee this Wednesday. It will be very important for us to make our voices heard regarding this bill.

I urge everyone to contact your legislative representatives ASAP to let them know how detrimental this levy limit will be for all libraries. Links are below, and talking points to include. Please feel free to include comments specific to your library.

The Committee members are:

Senator Jim Waring, jwaring@azleg.gov
Senator Barbara Leff, bleff@azleg.gov
Senator Ron Gould, rgould@azleg.gov
Senator Russell Pearce, rpearce@azleg.gov
Senator Steve Pierce, spierce@azleg.gov
Senator Ken Cheuvront, kcheuvront@azleg.gov
Senator Debbie McCune Davis, dmccunedavis@azleg.gov
Senator Richard Miranda, rmiranda@azleg.gov

Important contacts are Barbara Leff (District 11 Paradise Valley) and Steve Pearce (Prescott).

If you need help to contact your legislator, follow this link: http://www.azleg.gov/alisStaticPages/HowToContactMember.asp

Talking Points:
The Library Districts have such a low levy rate to begin with, a 2% increase generates such limited capacity that the benefit is negligible (any examples like the Apache County one, or others, our libraries can provide would be helpful).
This disproportionately hurts rural libraries because new construction is the only real generator of an increase in levy limit. New construction in rural areas even in a good economy is a small bump in county valuations.
Property valuations are decreasing all around the state. As this impacts the counties it will disproportionately impact the libraries as they are tied to the county growth calculation in this bill.
Library Districts are good stewards of public funds. They are answerable to the voters through the County Supervisors. They have not abused their taxing authority and have not been the subject of taxpayer concern or complaint.
This is a very small issue for taxpayers, yet a critical one to the already beleaguered Library Districts. All Library Districts are cutting their budgets, laying off and eliminating staff, reducing hours and access to resources, along with all other state and local governments.
Pima County absorbed the total financial responsibility for libraries when the City of Tucson turned libraries over to the District in 2005. This would not have been possible given the tax rate limit described. If other counties plan on a similar action, they will need the ability to increase the rate accordingly.
In counties with steady population growth it may take bond funds or other capital to build new libraries. When new libraries come on there is usually a corresponding increase to operate the new library. This does not always happen the same year as growth – as it takes time to raise the capital, and build.
Denise Keller, AzLA President

UPDATE: MESA PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER LIBRARIANS

Last night at the Mesa Public Schools Board meeting, the Board chose to eliminate all teacher-librarians over a 3 year period.
One-third of the schools in Mesa will not have librarians in 08-09. This includes Westwood High School, which hosts an International Baccalaureate program. Students in this program must complete a very involved senior thesis.
We will be monitoring Mesa Public Schools next year closely, and will continue to advocate for teacher-librarian funding at the state level.
Thank you to all who participated in advocating for students, through petition signing, rallying, and sending comments to the Mesa Governing Board.
Related press:
http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/2008/06/25/20080625mr-budget0626.html
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/06/23/20080623budget0623.html
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/story/119320

Letter from President about Mesa school librarians

Greetings AzLA Members:
For those of you who have not heard, Mesa Public Schools, Arizona’s largest school district recently announced a three-year plan to eliminate all school librarian positions as part of a cost-savings measure. Additionally, school districts around the state continue reducing library services in an effort to balance their budgets.
In response to this alarming situation "Fund Our Future Arizona," a coalition of parents, businesses and other partners/endorsers, has been formed to launch a statewide effort to raise awareness for school libraries. The Arizona Library Association has responded by becoming an official Charter Member of "Fund Our Future Arizona". A petition has begun circulating to provide Arizona citizens a forum to voice their support, which I strongly encourage all members to sign. I have attached a press release with further information and contacts.
Visit http://www.fundourfuturearizona.org for more information!
Please join me in an effort to support our libraries, schools, and students!

SB 1256 Property Tax Update

The Senate again failed to hold a vote on SB 1256: special districts; secondary levy limits (B. Burns) when a majority of senators told the bill's sponsor they planned to vote against the proposal. The bill, which would arbitrarily restrict county-controlled library, public health and jail districts to an annual increase of two percent plus new construction, has repeatedly been held back as Senate leadership attempts to corral the necessary votes.
After several months of negotiations on another property tax proposal, the Senate held a vote on HB 2220: state equalization property tax repeal (J. Weiers) when Senator Ken Cheuvront (D-15) changed his vote to allow the measure to pass. The permanent repeal of the state's education property tax rate had been stalled due to division in the Senate Republican caucus. If approved by Governor Napolitano, the proposal would permanently establish the property tax repeal that was suspended for three years in 2006. It is unclear whether or not the Governor will sign the legislation.

Teacher-Librarians: Take Action in Virtual Library Legislative Day

Just one week from tomorrow on April 17, many librarians and library supporters will descend upon the Arizona State Legislature to demonstrate to our lawmakers just how important libraries are to our communities. Many battles are being waged in the Legislature this year, including minimizing cuts to the State Library, Archives, and Public Records and the new Archives building, and fighting the secondary property tax cap. While none of these issues are directly about school libraries or teacher-librarians, all of these issues either directly or indirectly impact school libraries and teacher-librarians.

This is why I am asking you to participate in Virtual Library Legislative Day.

You do not need to come to the Capitol. You do not need to take a personal day.

I am asking for a commitment of five minutes of your time. Five minutes for you to either call or email your two representatives and one senator and leave a message with his/her secretary.

I am asking you to leave this message:

I am a constituent of Representative/Senator __________. Arizona Revised Statute 15-362 allows school districts to hire anyone to operate a school library, regardless of training or preparation. Why are school libraries treated differently than classrooms in Arizona?

Imagine if each legislator received 10 calls about this on April 17. Imagine if they received 50! Imagine if they received 100!

It is up to you to make your voice heard on this important issue. Will YOU make the commitment to call on April 17?

Find your Representatives and Senator: http://tinyurl.com/3czx2l

Representative and Senator phone/email list: http://azleg.gov/MemberRoster.asp

ARS 15-362 http://www.azleg.gov/ars/15/00362.htm

You are cordially invited to participate in
Library Legislative Day

When: 9 to 4 p.m., Thursday, April 17, 2008
Where: Administrative Conference Room (2nd Floor)
What: Call your Representatives and Senator to schedule a personal appointment
Why: If we don’t speak up for libraries, who will?
Bring: Library supporters, library board members, Friends of your library, and

information about your library to add to your district packets.

Agenda
8:30 – 9:00 Registration – Pick up packets to deliver to legislators
9:00 – 9:15 Welcome and Introductions
Angela Creel-Erb, AzLA President
Senate President Timothy Bee (invited)
House Speaker James Weiers (invited)
9:15 – 9:30 Legislative Process
Mike Braun, Director, Legislative Council
9:30 – 9:55 Budget Process
Michael Hunter, Senior Policy Advisor for Budget & Finance
9:55 – 10:15 2008 Legislative Agenda
Brenda Brown, AzLALegislative Chair
Kristen Boilini, AzLA Lobbyist
10:15 – 11:30 Appointments with Legislators and Executive Staff
Appointments to be set by legislative day attendee in advance
11:30 – 1:00 Lunch with Legislators on the Senate Lawn
1:00 – 4:00 Appointments with Legislators and Executive Staff
Appointments to be set by legislative day attendee in advance
REGISTRATION FORM
THERE WILL BE A $10.00 REGISTRATION FEE FOR LEGISLATIVE DAY. THIS FEE WILL COVER YOUR BBQ LUNCH AND IS PAYABLE ONLY THE MORNING OF LEGISLATIVE DAY
Name: _____________________________________________________________________________________________
Library Represented: _________________________________________________________________________________
Address: ___________________________________________________________________________________________
City: ______________________________________________________________________________________________
Home Phone: ________________________________________ Work Phone: ____________________________________
E-mail: ____________________________________________________________________________________________
Legislative Dist. # ____________________ Number in Party: ______________________

Fax your registration to 480-782-2823

Info: SCR 1028 Prohibiting Public Gifts

The following letter from Ginny Hildebrand of the Association of Arizona Food Banks provides detail about a Senate Resolution that will prevent or limit public/private partnerships. We will provide more information when available.

Dear friends,
Last Wednesday, after receiving information from Community Food Bank of Tucson, written by Mark Clark a longtime advocate in Pima County, we became aware of a little known Senate Resolution to put a ballot initiative forward in AZ to amend the AZ Constitution to prohibit "public gifts, loans, donations or grants for ANY PUBLIC OR PRIVATE PURPOSE." This is SCR1028 (copy attached), sponsored by Senators Johnson, Cheuvront, Blendu and Gould. While we are told that the intention is to prevent public entities from giving away resources to private companies as means of incentives for them to do business in their communities or subdivisions, here at AAFB the language used in the bill put our red flags up immediately because we have very extensive public/private partnerships to deliver emergency and supplemental food services statewide. Without these partnerships – that include building, land, trucks, labor by prison and jail inmates, we would be hard-pressed to provide the level of services to needy Arizonans.
Today Mark Barnes, Laurie Foran and I met with Senator Debbie McCune-Davis, a member of the Senate Financial Institutions, Insurance, and Retirement Committee who heard this resolution a few weeks ago. While the Committee passed it on a 3-2 vote it has now gone to Senate Rules and is awaiting action there. Sen. McCune Davis at that hearing questioned the language of the bill as "being excessively broad." In speaking with her today, I brought up points such as:
* AZ has chosen to provide health and human services through a public/private partnership model. Excluding options to share space and resources could severely damage this type of service delivery.
* Many non-profits have benefitted from gifts of land, buildings, shared office space with any number of city, county, state or other subdivision of the state thereby enabling them to provide human and health service in a cost effective manner.
She is willing to go to Senate Leadership to ask that SCR1028 not be allowed to be put on the ballot due to the impact the wording could have on non-profit organizations in AZ. However, she would like a list of the relationships that are currently in place by organization or service sectors to show as an example of what could be impacted in the future, if a constitutional amendment such as this were approved.
Can you please help by providing information of this type to me to provide to Sen. McCune-Davis at your earliest possible convenience, but not later than next Friday 3/28/08, so that she can assist us in defeating SCR1028?
The types of examples we’re looking for are (this is just the beginning, not an exhaustive list):
A city or county that provides office space to a non-profit to provide some type of service for the public good
A city or county that gives land to a non-profit so that a building can be constructed to provide a service to the public
A city or county that provides the work of County Jail inmates to clean facilities or prepare facilities to be suitable for delivery of services to the public
State departments who are in partnership with non-profits to deliver public services (i.e. homeless shelters, domestic violence shelters, etc.)
Sen. McCune-Davis says we have a little time because Resolutions are not subject to the same time limitations as other bills in the Legislature. In fact, usually all the resolutions are gathered at one time and decided upon by the House & Senate Leadership, regarding which ones will move past the Rules Committee and to the next House of consideration and onto the ballot in November.
There may be other examples that will come to you, once you read the language of the resolution. Give me a call if you have any questions, but please send me any and all information you can by 3/28/08, close of business.
If we are not successful with this strategy, we may need to do some massive calling – phone & in person – to defeat this resolution BEFORE it gets on the ballot. You can just imagine the difficulty we’d have defeating this in a general election.
Thank you for your help, and I look forward to hearing from you.
P. S. If you know of others in the community you could pass this along to in order to get more input, please feel free to do so. Thank you.
Ginny
Ginny Hildebrand
Executive Director
Association of Arizona Food Banks