I think the zoo could make ends meet without public support if it removed all but its least expensive exhibits, stopped allowing school groups and educational programming for a nominal fee and dramatically reduced its size and staff.

The question before voters will be....do we think that a tax is worth a zoo of the caliber of Detroit's, or do we want a smaller-scale, private zoo. I'm hoping they'll structure a proposal at a cost that I can vote for because I think a strong zoo provides a region with benefits that go beyond those accrued by visitors (see previous post). Now, if you simply don't trust any governmental entity not to rob you blind, I suppose you've got to vote no. I'm not that jaded, though I do agree that govt work doesn't have the incentive for efficiency that private enterprise does.

As for the restaurant analogy, I'll pick my favorite downtown place and ask you how it can be self sustaining when it:

-- Has customers arriving courtesy of publicly-funded and maintained roads.
-- Uses sewer and water services whose infrastructure is supported and subsidized not only by its rates paid, but by broadly-collected public tax dollars.
-- Uses coal-fired electricity purchased at rates subsidized by federal tax breaks for coal mining and state financial backing of power plant construction.
-- Receives police and fire protection from publicly funded agencies.
-- Probably got a property tax abatement when it opened.
-- Is certified by the publicly-funded county health department.
-- Uses foods from corporate farms whose crops are subsidized by federal government largesse
-- Has its waste hauled away at a rate subsidized by the city's taxpayers
-- Has snow cleared from its parking lot through a contract subsidized by the tax-funded DDA (um...this is a maybe)
-- Is enhanced by TIFA-funded streetscape projects
-- Is marketed by a tax-funded DDA-type entity
--
--

This referendum shouldn't be a vote for new taxes.  It should be a freaking fundraising drive... like a primary, where you ask for the "donation" ballot or the "no donation" ballot.