Detroit Zoo MillageSpinal Column Online – 07/30/2008

http://www.spinalcolumnonline.com/Articles-i-2008-07-30-55767.113117_Detroit_zoo_millage_endorsement.html

Maniesh JoshiEco5520

Detroit Zoo

• Located in Royal Oak and Huntington Woods• First opened in 1883• Home to more than 3,000 animals• Hosts 127,000 school children and teachers

per year through field trips• Run by nonprofit Detroit Zoological Society

The Millage

• A mill is the tax per dollar of assessed value of property. One mill is 1/10th of a cent ($0.001).

• Voters were asked to approve 0.10 of a mill for a 10-year period to help underwrite the operational budget of the zoo.

• It translated to approximately $10 per year for the owner of a home with a $200,000 market value.

The Benefits

• The Detroit Zoo employees hundreds and puts back about $60 million annually for the economy.

• The city of Detroit currently provides support for the zoo but this will probably not last.

• 85% of the zoo’s visitors are from the tri-county area of Oakland, Macomb, and Wayne counties, which are those that would fund the millage.

The Benefits

• The millage will raise $15 million per year for the zoo, or half of the zoo’s budget.

• Without the millage, the zoo may not have been able to receive enough funding to continue its current service in the future through admissions prices alone (as most other funding will probably be dropped)

What does it mean?• Without the millage,

residents keep $10 per year per household to use as they choose, but lose some services at the zoo.

• With the millage, residents lose $10 per year per household, but retain full usage of the zoo, without loss of other public services

Detroit Zoo

Other Public services