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Free for some?
(by Kara Krekeler - March 02, 2010)
If Missouri Sen. Joan Bray has her way, some of Forest Park’s biggest attractions could soon be able to charge admission, although it’s unlikely that any of them would.
On Feb. 8, Bray introduced SB903, a bill that would give the institutions of the Zoo-Museum District — the St. Louis Art Museum, the St. Louis Zoo, the Missouri History Museum and the St. Louis Science Center — the ability to charge admission for visitors who do not live within the city of St. Louis or St. Louis County. Established in 1972, the ZMD receives funding from property taxes in the city and county.
Just two days later, Bray added the measure to SB580, an omnibus bill incorporating several municipal regulations affecting jurisdictions throughout the state. The Senate approved the measure by a 25-6 vote on Feb. 18, at which time it was passed to the House of Representatives.
If passed, Bray’s legislation would not require any of the institutions to charge admission; rather it would simply give them the option of doing so in the future and would allow them to exempt whoever they wanted, such as children, senior citizens or ZMD residents.
The fifth institution covered by the ZMD is the Missouri Botanical Garden, which began charging admission in the 1960s, before it joined the district in 1983. According to the Garden’s 2008 annual report (the most recent available), admission accounts for just under 5 percent of the Garden’s revenue, while ZMD taxes make up about 25 percent.
While Bray’s measure has passed the Senate, there is no guarantee that the omnibus bill will ultimately become law. For example, the House could vote it down out of hand, or representatives could add enough of their own amendments that it would become too unwieldy to pass the Senate again.
That hasn’t stopped the outcry from patrons of the four Forest Park landmarks, many of whom have taken to online message boards and social networking sites to express their concern that the Zoo and Science Center in particular would begin charging admission.
The comments prompted the Zoo to issue a statement — and Facebook message — on Feb. 15 saying that the Zoo has no intention of charging admission and is committed to remaining free to all visitors.
“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 St. Louis Zoo,” St. Louis Zoo President and CEO Jeffrey Bonner said in the press statement.
The Zoo receives about a third of its operating budget from the ZMD taxes, while the remaining two-thirds are split between revenues from parking, gift shop and food sales, and membership and donations.
Other ZMD institutions rely more heavily on the taxes; for example, the Science Center gets about 45 percent of its revenue from city and county property taxes, while those taxes account for about 60 percent of the Art Museum’s annual income.
The rest of the Forest Park institutions have echoed the Zoo’s commitment to remaining free, although Bob Archibald, president of the Missouri History Museum, said that he supports the effort to give the ZMD more freedom to govern itself. Currently, any changes regarding charging admission or extending the district to other counties — the latter of which was the subject of an unsuccessful bill Bray sponsored in 2009 — require changes to state law.
“As an institution, I can’t see charging admission at any point,” Archibald said, adding that the current bill would only give the institutions the option of charging admission in the future. “But the population demographics have changed [since the ZMD’s formation] and people have moved farther out. In the future, I’d like to have a broader base” for ZMD revenue.
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