Op-Ed by St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann
This column first appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
I want to congratulate the St. Louis Zoo Association on its plan to buy 425 acres of land in north St. Louis County on which to develop a conservation facility to breed endangered animals and allow visitors to watch animals graze. The St. Louis Zoo Association, a private nonprofit group, has raised $7.1 million to make the purchase.
My staff and I became aware of the association’s desire for such a facility even before the announcement of a possible purchase of nearly 200 acres of Grant’s Farm. That did not work out and neither did efforts by the zoo the past two years to convince the Missouri Legislature to authorize the counties of St. Louis, St. Charles, Jefferson and Franklin to ask their voters to approve a tax for the zoo. While those efforts were underway, St. Charles County did a scientific survey to see what our voters thought about our parks. We also asked them about helping the St. Louis Zoo.
While 63 percent of St. Charles County taxpayers visited the zoo the previous year, when asked about financial support to the St. Louis Zoo, only 26 percent were opposed to paying an admission fee. While only 39 percent said they would support a sales tax, should the Legislature authorize one, a solid majority of those who had an opinion supported use of existing county park tax revenue to support the zoo.
The disproportionate representation on the zoo subdistrict between the city and county, which contributes five times the revenue of the city, makes it unlikely taxpayers in St. Charles County would vote to be part of such an arrangement, even if the Legislature gave them the chance. They would also question why the city has given away millions of dollars that would have gone to the zoo in the form of tax breaks. As a result, city property tax revenue dedicated to the zoo has been flat for a decade.
Given these facts and our survey results, we asked the Zoo Association to explore the possibility of developing a conservation facility in St. Charles County. Representatives of the Zoo Association, members of the zoo staff and President and CEO Jeffrey Bonner spent many hours with us and carefully considered 450 acres of county park land near Wentzville, which the County Council authorized us to offer for development of a conservation facility. I also agreed to support the dedication of the $800,000 the county annually receives back from the Regional Parks Tax county taxpayers have been paying since 2001, along with additional park tax revenue we would spend on the park whatever its use.
With the annual lease value of the land, the total annual contribution would have approached $1.8 million. While that would have been more than other counties in the region, it is nowhere near the $17 million St. Louis County taxpayers provide. While it is less than the $3 million from the city of St. Louis, according to the Convention and Visitors Bureau, the city receives over $4.1 million in hotel/motel tax, sales tax and city earnings tax from zoo visitors.
In July, the Zoo Association, pointing out its tax proposals “did not survive the legislative process,” informed us it could not proceed with the project in St. Charles County. Having developed an appreciation of what is required, we think the facility in north St. Louis County will be terrific.
The Post-Dispatch recently editorialized, “The zoo is a regional asset. It needs regional financial support,” and pointed out that the Legislature, while authorizing sales tax increases in St. Louis city and county only, also allowed the zoo to charge admission for newly built facilities. All parents who have taken their children to the existing Forest Park zoo know it is free to get in but it will cost you to get out. Charges for special shows within the gates, along with parking fees and charitable contributions, bridge the gap between the $21.6 million raised through property taxes and the zoo’s $66 million in annual expenses. We in St. Charles County will understand if we need to pay additional entrance fees at the new facility.
We would like to think that St. Charles County’s offer of free land and contributions toward operational expenses helped the zoo get a much better deal on the property in north St. Louis County and editorialists and cartoonists “across the wide Missouri” will quit suggesting St. Charles County has never done anything for the zoo.
