Ingham County voters will decide to renew or not renew a millage used for operating expenses of the Potter Park Zoo, located in Lansing during this year's election.
“The millage, really, is responsible for the operating expenses of the zoo: operations, maintenance and improvements," Potter Park Zoo Education Curator Dennis Laidler said.
Laidler said the millage is an important part of the zoo's budget.
“In the aggregate, (the millage) generates $2.8 million a year for the operations of the Potter Park Zoo, and that is far and away the largest single revenue source, $2.8 million a year,” Chairperson of Ingham County Board of Commissioners Kara Hope said. “The next largest revenue source is admissions, and that’s $600,000 a year, so that gives the idea of how significant the millage is.”
Laidler said he feels this millage is important to the city and to the county.
“The zoo is really a centerpiece for the city and the county," Laidler said. "We have almost 200,000 visitors, like one hundred 70 or 80 thousand (170,000 or 180,000) visitors a year."
The Potter Park Zoo is nationally accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, an honor less than 10 percent of zoos and aquariums are awarded.
For that reason, it is important to Laidler that the millage to be renewed so the zoo can hold onto the accreditation.
“We would not be able to be accredited if we didn’t have the funding from the millage,” Laidler said.
Hope said a millage is, “A property tax, and depending on what your property is worth that dictates what you’ll pay in property taxes. If you don’t own any property, you won’t directly pay property taxes, however, it’s pretty commonly understood that landlords take their property taxes into account when they set rent.”
This is not the only millage that exists in Ingham County, Hope said.
“In Ingham County we do have a number of dedicated millages, and the Potter Park Zoo millage is an example of that,” Hope said. “The good thing about those is that it guarantees a revenue source for a particular service or whatever it is, like the zoo, parks and trails, animal shelter, whatever the subject of the millage vote is.”
Hope said for this reason, millages function as a method of direct democracy because it gives voters an opportunity to say what they do and do not want to pay for.
Laidler said he realizes the biggest question for many people regards how much it will cost them to support the zoo.
“The sort of standard that they use when people say, ‘Well, how much is this going to cost me in my property taxes?’” Laidler said. “The standard they use, so you can compare to various millages is that for a typical home that’s valued at $100,000, which means it has a taxable value of approximately $50,000, it’s about $20.50 per year, about a $1.70 a month.”
All things considered, this change in property tax does not equate to a very noticeable difference for Ingham County residents.
On a more basic level, Hope said, “As far as the millage rate, it’s comparable (to other Ingham County millages). It’s .41 mils, so that’s 41 cents of every thousand dollars of taxable value on your property.”
Compared to the millage renewal that passed earlier this year for the Detroit Zoo, which is an accredited zoo similar to Potter Park Zoo, the costs are not far off from one another.
“For a homeowner whose home is worth roughly $200,000, the cost is about $10 a year,” Bill Laitner from the Detroit Free Press said in an article.
Laidler said it’s easy for Ingham County residents to make up the cost of the millage by visiting the zoo.
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“Ingham County residents do get reduced admission because they’re in the levy area and also on Mondays, the first half of the day, any Monday they can come in for free because they’re Ingham County residents,” Laidler said.
Hope wanted to make sure voters understand the importance of this millage.
“It’s not an overstatement to say the zoo cannot operate without this millage,” she said.
