 |
| Zoo Budget "Slashed?" |
|
The Bottom Line: The KC Zoo is trying the tried and true blackmail tactic of threatening to pull its national group's convention from the city if it doesn't get the funding it demands. It is particularly interesting that the Kansas City Star used the verb "slash" to refer to the proposed cutting of the zoo's budget from $4.6 million to $4 million.
"When you talk about 'slashing" a budget I would say that it would mean cutting it by one-half to one-third, not less than 15 percent," said a former editor. "It is pretty clear how the Star is viewing the cut." 03-27-2008
If funds for KC Zoo go, will convention follow?
By RICK ALM, The Kansas City Star
Uh oh. This is starting to look like a trend.
If the city doesn’t back off deep funding cuts for the Kansas City Zoo, the national Association of Zoos and Aquariums may cancel its 2013 annual convention it just booked here two weeks ago.
“Any time we hold a conference, we want to make sure (the local zoo) has a commitment and city support,” said association executive director Kris Vehrs on Wednesday. “That’s important to us to hold a successful conference. We would certainly have to consider (city budget cuts) as a factor.”
The 2013 zoo convention is expected to draw 2,000 attendees, consume more than 4,000 hotel room nights and pump $3.5 million into the local economy. The prospect of losing the zoo convention is being raised as the city grapples with closing a yawning fiscal 2009 budget gap that by some early estimates exceeded $70 million.
Efforts to close that budget gap involve cuts across a broad range of city services and programs.
Randy Wisthoff, zoo director, said the zoo association was stunned by a proposal that the city’s $1.3 billion budget — to be voted on today — slash the annual zoo operating subsidy from $4.6 million to $4 million.
“It’s not a threat. It’s just a matter of fact,” said Wisthoff of the zoo association’s stance. “They made their decision based on a set of criterion. Zoo groups go to cities because they want to see zoos … progressive zoos that are well maintained and exhibit great city support.”
Mayor Mark Funkhouser, who pushed for the zoo cuts along with reductions in other city programs while emphasizing funding for public safety and basic infrastructure repairs, declined to comment.
Wisthoff noted the city’s five-year management contract with the Kansas City Friends of the Zoo, signed in 2007, calls for annual city subsidy increases of $300,000.
“There’s obviously a considerable lack of city support when you look at those numbers,” he said. “The rug is being pulled out from us.” “We told (the zoo association) we were going to have a dynamite zoo, a great, great zoo in 2013,” he said. “As of today I can’t guarantee any of that.”
Vehrs said the association fears budgets cuts could set the zoo back years in its upgrade plans. “The mayor’s initiative would take some transition time … to get the zoo back to what it is,” Vehrs said.
The threat of losing the national zoo convention comes on the heels of last year’s decision by the Hispanic-based National Council of La Raza to cancel its 2009 convention here in a boycott over Funkhouser’s appointment to the city park board of Frances Semler, a member of the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps. Semler has since resigned from the park board.
La Raza’s event would have been about twice the size of the zoo gathering, at 4,000 delegates and $5.5 million in spending. In a show of support for La Raza, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said at the time it might also cancel its 2010 convention in Kansas City. Earlier this week, however, the civil rights organization confirmed its event would be held here after all.
“This is like convention blackmail,” said an exasperated Visitors Association Chairman Bill Lucas at the board’s monthly meeting this week, where he disclosed the dust-up over the zoo to members. Mike Burke, a Visitors Association board member, defended public funding levels for the zoo, noting the council in 2004 authorized $30 million in long-term bonds, approved and underwritten by voters and taxpayers, to finance major capital expenditures at the zoo.
“If anybody says we’re not investing in the zoo, we just invested $30 million,” said Burke. Wisthoff said about $10 million of that sum has been spent to date. But he emphasized city bond money can’t be used to support much of the zoo’s $12.3 million annual operating budget for such things as salaries or animal care.
“There’s so many things I can’t do with that money,” said Wisthoff. “We can’t just switch that money to operating. Part of our (annual subsidy) increase is to cover operating expenses and labor for capital expansion improvements.”
The Visitors Association on Wednesday delivered a letter to Funkhouser and the council urging caution in making any budget cuts that could “seriously damage Kansas City’s appeal as a convention and visitor destination.”
The letter also urged city officials to press for a bi-state cultural tax that would provide a more stable, broadly based funding source for the region’s tourism and leisure attractions. The zoo association is the industry’s leading accrediting organization with 218 members, including the Kansas City Zoo, which is accredited through September 2010.
Two weeks ago the organization signed a letter of intent with the Visitors Association to hold its 2013 North American Conference in Kansas City. “It’s a feather in your cap in the zoo world to land this convention,” Wisthoff said. “People from around the world show up.” |