End Zoo-Museum Tax: "County Parks Have Suffered Too Long"
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: St. Louis County resident Ed Golterman believes the tax revenue can be better used.
With (St. Louis) County residents and visitors overwhelmed with taxes -- county, state, municipalities, parks, sewers, sales, promoting St. Louis -- we should be spared any campaign to raise our taxes to save the County Parks. That should be stopped today.
County officials should file suit to end the Zoo-Museums tax and recover $50 million a year for the people of St. Louis County from direct funding of the zoo and museums in Forest Park & Missouri Botanical Gardens.
Since Civic Progress took control of Forest Park, and 're-made' it, they turned these attractions/institutions into money-making machines, starting with huge donations for tax write offs for big projects. The flows of money are now at an 'obscene' level. And all tax-sheltered. These institutions have not needed direct tax support from St. Louis County for at least a decade. The County Parks have suffered too long.
Submitted by Ed Golterman
Letters to the Editor are submitted by various community residents as independent opinions, and are not published as viewpoints of Eureka-Wildwood Patch, Patch.com or its affiliates.
Margaret Eisenberger
6:35 am on Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Maybe we just have different circles of friends, but the people I talk to are proud to be able to support the cultural institutions the entire region shares with their tax money. I am a member of the Garden, as are many others I know, and friends with kids are members of the Zoo. We all go into the city frequently to enjoy the free day at the Art Museum or the latest movie or exhibit at the Science Center, in addition to checking out the amazing things that have come to the Garden - again sometimes on the free day, or whatever new baby has appeared at the zoo. Our zoo is rated in the top three in the nation, along with San Diego and the Bronx, but ours is the only free one and that contributes greatly to the quality of life ratings for our region. The County Parks issue is separate and needs to be addressed independently. Possibly it is simply a case of poor management rather than insufficient funding.