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This page was last updated on October 07, 2004
Our opposition to Measure Z, the countywide zoo tax, hinges on nine concerns:
1. We taxpayers are already overburdened with taxation at the national, state, and local levels. On the current November ballot, there are three countywide measures, four school bond measures, one city hotel tax, and one city utility tax. Additionally, there are plans to place ballot measures on the 2006 to promote transportation and public safety taxes. These taxes stunt economic growth, particularly damaging in an area of double-digit unemployment.
2. Users and supporters of the zoo tax have not fully solicited individuals, businesses, and philanthropies for voluntary contributions. Instead of spending over half a million dollars in a solicitation program, the tax supporters are choosing to use those resources to raise our taxes. They have also decided against higher admission fees, which would even further reduce the need for outside contributions.
3. Users and supporters of the zoo have chosen not to utilize alternatives to the zoos operation, such as full incorporation into the private Aquarius Aquarium project (which has offered to take in the zoo), partially incorporation into animal collections such as the Sierra Cat Haven in Dunlap, moving the zoo out of Roeding Park, and outsourcing of some zoo operations.
4. Measure Z forces neighbors to spend money against their will, a very un-neighborly act. There are several means for individuals and groups to support the zoo. Thus, Measure Z is not self-taxation; it is taxation of our neighbors. Measure Z encourages people to avoid self-responsibility by taking money from their neighbors to support their desired community projects. This culture of coercion is corrosive to our county.
5. Measure Z promotes the shirking of responsibility by our elected officials. Instead of adequately funding the zoo in their budgets, local officials are seeking to raise our taxes in order to avoid making tough decisions. Unprecedented increases in assessed home values have brought unprecedented revenues into local governments, which should make decision-making easier.
6. The revenue projected to be raised by this “tiny tax” should be easy to raise voluntarily. To raise $6-8 million, the estimated yearly tax revenue, it would only cost each voting supporter of the tax, if Measure Z were to pass, about $5 a month, even less if corporate and charitable donations are factored in.
7. Measure Z gives the zoo funding regardless of how well the zoo is maintained, retaining a lack of incentive to maintain the zoo. The functioning of the zoo would be dramatically improved by the accountability of the free market, which would incentivize the zoo to maintain it in a manner attractive to its donors and patrons.
8. Details on the selection and powers of the zoo authority to be created are not clarified by the measure.
9. Details about the long-term plans for the zoo in Roeding Park are not clarified by the measure or by the measure's supporters. The zoo tax supporters are saying that any zoo expansion to be done will be minor. But that doesn't jibe with the plans revealed to the Fresno County Board of Supervisors; for those details, please visit the Save Roeding Park web site, below.