This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Feb. 17, 2010 - Stephen Robin of University City is a big fan of the Zoo and the Art Museum in Forest Park and considers paying taxes to keep them going a privilege.
He also thinks they should remain free to everyone, not just to people who live in St. Louis and St. Louis County, the Zoo-Museum District where property taxes for those institutions and others are levied.
Now, a bill to let those institutions and others that are part of the district charge admission to nonresidents is moving through the Missouri Legislature. But even if it passes, don't worry about having to fork over money to see the monkeys or the Monets any time soon.
"I would personally not want to see that happen," said Robert Archibald, head of the Missouri History Museum, which also is part of the district along with the Science Center and the Missouri Botanical Garden.
"The legislation out there is simply permissive. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing at least to have the authority there. It's simply putting another tool on the table. It's an authorization, not a requirement."
Most people think of the cultural institutions as being free for everyone, but for much of the area, the cost is there -- it's just not charged at the gate.
More than 40 years ago, voters approved property taxes to help pay for the Zoo and the Art Museum. Later, the Science Center, the History Museum and the Botanical Garden were added to the Zoo-Museum District, and each of them -- except for the Garden, which charged admission fees before joining the district and continues to do so -- remained free to enter for everyone, whether they pay the tax or not.
The legislation, Senate Bill 903, sponsored by Sen. Joan Bray, D-University City, takes the familiar words "forever free" that apply to the institutions and adds the crucial qualifying phrase "to residents of the district." Each institution would be allowed to decide whether to take advantage of the opportunity.
Bray said that there is a lot of misinformation and misinterpretation spreading about the bill, so she wants to stress that it is totally permissive. It gives the institutions the option to decide whether they want to charge nonresidents and who, if anyone, might be exempted.
She said expanding the district to take in other areas is another possibility down the road, but in the meantime, for institutions that feel they could use more options to add to their operating budget, they would be able to take advantage of the tool that the bill provides.
Not everyone appears eager to do so. Once word of the possible change became public, two of the institutions -- the Zoo and the Art Museum -- made it clear they would not institute an admission charge, even if they could.
In the words of Jeffrey P. Bonner, president and CEO of the Zoo:
"The Saint Louis Zoo does not intend to charge admission. We are committed to remaining free to all, including non-residents of St. Louis and St. Louis County, consistent with the language of the original legislation. We are not aware of the impetus behind the recent Missouri Senate amendment, but we are not in support of it as it pertains to the Saint Louis Zoo."
The Science Center and the History Museum were a little less forceful, but they made it clear that instituting an admission charge is not something they would welcome.
PUBLIC SUPPORT
Since the property taxes began in the early 1970s, tax revenue for the institutions in the Zoo-Museum District has grown from $3.9 million in 1972 to more than $72 million in 2008. About 85 percent of the revenue comes from St. Louis County, with the other 15 percent coming from the city.
In a recent annual report, the district noted that tax revenue provides at least 50 percent of the operating budget for the institutions, with the rest coming from concessions, gifts, membership dues and fees for special exhibits. Without the tax support -- which the report said has totaled more than $1 billion over the years -- "it is doubtful that any of the institutions would be recognized as world-class."
Currently, each of the institutions has a tax rate just below its authorized level: 7.14 cents each for the Zoo and Art Museum, which have an authorization of 8 cents, and 3.55 cents for the others, which have authorized rates of 4 cents. The total that property owners pay each year is 24.93 cents for each $100 in assessed valuation.
The various institutions draw from different audiences. At the Zoo, for example, its 3.1 million visitors last year were about evenly split between residents and nonresidents of the district. Across Oakland Avenue, at the Science Center, of the 1.1 million people who attended last year, 40 percent were from the district, 14 percent more were from other local Missouri counties and 12 percent more were from local Illinois counties. School groups were not included in the total.
In past years, Bray has sought to give the institutions more public support by trying to give the district the ability to expand beyond St. Louis and St. Louis County -- subject to voter approval in these counties. But that option did not receive much support, so she scaled the effort back to the current plan of letting the institutions charge nonresidents of the district if they choose.
St. Charles County Executive Steve Ehlmann said he thought his constituents who now attend the institutions for free would understand if they eventually had to pay an admission charge. “They would be disappointed,” he said, “but they’d understand.”
He also said that instead of going ahead with a plan that the institutions don't seem to favor at this point, it might make more sense to work to replce the current property tax with some form of sales tax. "That way, people who do not live in St. Louis and St. Louis County would actually contribute to the institutions," he said.
In a statement released late Wednesday, Mayor Francis Slay said:
"The cultural institutions have decided correctly, I think, to honor their pledges to be free to all forever. It is based on a calculation of goodwill versus revenue that is theirs to make. City and county taxpayers, who pay taxes to the ZMD, will not have to pay more taxes because of it; nor would we have paid less if the Zoo and the others decided to collect admissions from visitors."
{C}{C}{C}{C}{C}{C}Archibald pointed out possible problems with any effort to expand the district.
"It's a really complicated issue," he said. "One problem is the issue of governance. If you added three or four counties, do you give equal representation to all, or do you pro-rate it on some sort of population or revenue basis? Do you create a district that includes the city and county, where taxpayers are already paying, or would it be constitutional to create a doughnut district, which would not include the city or county?
"Is there any appetite at all for people to tax themselves for these institutions beyond the city and the county? Should you try to create a bi-state compact that includes counties on the other side of the river, since they are really as close to the institutions as the people who live in West County, if not closer?"
Then, he said, there is the broader issue of what "forever free" has meant to the area for all these years.
"From both a quality of life and a tourism perspective," Archibald said, "forever free is a good thing. Philosophically, I believe that museums are like libraries. If we believe they are important for everybody, they ought to be accessible to everybody, and I would be very hesitant to put financial barriers up there."
THE PAST AND THE FUTURE
Robin, of University City, agrees. He likes things the way they are, and he notes that just because visitors to St. Louis who don't pay taxes get into the Zoo for free does not mean they aren't contributing to the area's economy.
"They still spend money on food, on concessions, on other things, and they might be spending on hotels and other places in the area. The fact that we have certain attractions that ostensibly are listed as free is good. If people have the choice to go to a city where they have to spend a lot of money to take children to the zoo or a museum, or they can come to a city where they are free, they should be able to come somewhere they are free."
Celia Maness of Wildwood thinks that the institutions appear to be in good shape, so she would prefer keeping the status quo as far as financing is concerned.
Originally from Rolla, she remembers coming to the Zoo as a child and appreciates it as a draw for the city.
"These places are for everyone to visit," Maness said. "I know we do pay our taxes to support that, but there just aren't places like this anywhere else. I still think it's wonderful that everyone can go there and not have to pay for it. That's supported by our local community, and people from out of state go to these places. You can't ask everybody to pay taxes for that.
"There are lots of ways people can contribute to the Zoo or the Art Museum. Every time we got to the museum, we put money in the little box."
Robin views the institutions as a public good that the public should pay for.
"It's a privilege to be included in paying for those things," Robin said. "It's a bit like saying if I go to a different area, I might have to pay for every piece of road I drive on. Some people would say that is a good idea, but it's a question of where you stop. I think the balance is that people paying taxes to support these institutions really feel they are doing something good.
"If I had to choose whether I was spending money on supporting armaments in Washington or the St. Louis Zoo or the History Museum or the Art Museum, I know what I would spend money on. One is for the future, the other is for the past."