National conservative group campaigning against Columbus Zoo tax levy

Yeah, the pro sports venues being taxpayer built really bugs me. I'd think that the vast, vast majority would conclude that building playgrounds for the rich is not the best use of tax dollars.

I also don't think that this zoo levy failing means the people "aren't willing to support the zoo." They aren't willing to support it at twice the cost, apparently, but I have no doubt the zoo will find a levy proposal that will pass easily. (Extending the current levy would do that, is my guess.)

Vast majority of pro sports facilities are funded at least in part by tax dollars. Owners and other folks who want the public to pay for them always bring out various studies showing the net positive economic impact to the communities. But in reality, those benefits are overstated (general rule of thumb I have seen is to divide what the reports show by 10 to get actual expected economic impact) and costs are understated. Owners hold cities hostage and threaten to leave if they do not get the tax dollars. Politicians love to be at ribbon cutting ceremonies and are often times out of office by the time the long term costs must be paid by taxpayers.

I agree that Columbus didn't say they won't support the zoo with this vote. I think they just said they will not blindly support the zoo (which when I lived down there years ago, was pretty much what the community did). I think thats a good thing. For the community as well as the zoo.

Lankster said:

I think that was another issue in the defeat. The tax would apply only to Franklin county residents, while the zoo is actually in the county to the north. Maybe that was the point of the "downtown mini zoo" which really sounded like a dumb idea to me from the start.

The Zoo is annexed into the city of Columbus. So even though its in another county. Franklin county provides its tax base.

I didn't think the annex was a bad idea. They will be back but the downtown annex will be off the table i bet.

According to the article, right now all Ohio taxpayers chip in a bit:

The proposed levy increase is 67 percent, but homeowners would pay twice as much as they do now because the state no longer pays 12.5 percent of new levies for homeowners. The subsidy would remain if the zoo had asked voters to renew the current tax rather than make it permanent.

Passing the levy would have put all the burden on Franklin county residents.

I'm not sure why it matters that the city of Columbus owns the land, it still resides in another county and the residents of that county would not have had to support it one bit.

Columbus is the king of annexation. Helped it to avoid being cutoff by growth in suburbs. Enough people move somewhere and Columbus would annex it.