Local library hours could be cut come summertime as a way for the city and county to save money and because property taxes — most of what funds public libraries — have declined.

The Tracy Branch Library opens its doors to the public 53 hours a week. Tracy pays for 17 of those hours and the Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library system contracts 35, plus it throws in a free hour. But with the city scrambling to save money to cope with the recession, those 17 hours a week could drop to 12, saving Tracy about $20,500 of the $70,000 it pays every year for the extra 17 hours. And the county-paid 35 hours might drop to 30, saving $1 million annually.

Plus, part-time library employees may take a pay cut to avoid layoffs.

Property taxes brought in $6.2 million last fiscal year, according to the San Joaquin County Treasurer-Tax Collector’s Office. This year, property tax revenue is expected to dip to $5.5 million, which means a lot of cutbacks, said county Supervisor Leroy Ornellas, who represents Tracy on the board.

Natalie Rencher, former director of all county libraries, was laid off in February, and the library system merged with Stockton’s Parks and Recreation Department — all to save money and brace for the projected shortfall next fiscal year.

“It’s an unfortunate situation,” Ornellas said. “But all levels of local government are facing this problem.”

In Mountain House, the library hours may get cut from 20 to 15, said Ken Yamashita, deputy director of library services for Stockton and the county.

“They’re not an incorporated city, so they rely solely on the county to keep them open,” he said.

The small fraction of state money that goes toward public libraries, meanwhile, has been scaled back every year for several years now, Yamashita said.

“So really, the money is drying up from every source,” he said.

But the cuts are just proposals until Tracy, Stockton and the county balance their budgets for the year ahead. That should happen sometime in June, before the end of the fiscal year on June 30.

The irony is that as a weak economy forces government to make cuts, it also drives more people to use public services such as the library, said Kathleen Buffleben, director of both the Mountain House and Tracy branch libraries. Since earlier this year, the Tracy branch has seen a roughly 25 percent increase in patronage, according to the city and library officials.

People who have lost their jobs often go to the library to use the free wireless Internet, research or to attend resume-writing workshops. And many families that stopped renting movies to save money go to the library instead to borrow DVDs for free.