IMHO we need to add St. Charles County and northern Jefferson County to the Zoo-Museum taxing district = more funding = better = more research led = less "free riders" enjoying the free places on OUR (STL County and City) Tax dollars = more attractive to tourists who go to St. C's Main Street and Kimmswick (see they benefit)

Why is St. Charles not in the zoo-museum tax district. St. Louis County is. It's time for St. Charles to step up to the plate. I really want to hear arguments why it shouldn't be included.

Probably since when the tax was set up - st charles and Jeff Co were not fiscally significant - people who lived their farmed etc. And people who would add them - the law makers in those area - aren't going to say "add more taxes to pay for something we already get for free"

St. Charles County is projected by 2020 to have 380,000 people!



If the City of St. Louis has 350,000 now and St. Charles is quickly catching up, then they have every right to be apart of the taxing district and make our cultural institutions the best and still free in the nation.



More free besides entrance,

Zoo Monsanto insectarium costs $

Botanical Garden Climatron costs $

Zoo Children's area costs $

Science Center is badly in need of remodeling and much better exhibits in the newer building on Oakland> it does not even come close to comparing to Chicago's natural history museum

Science Center Planitarium costs $



What are we? Swindlers?



Add St. Charles County and we our tourist economy will thank them for the continuance of St. Louis's attractively free museums/zoo and low cost Botanical Garden.



Shall we start a campaign to lobby St. Charles County government, RCGA, or tourist something?

Monsanto Insectarium is now free ( since may 1st )

Childrens Zoo is free during the first hour of operation......



Besides those small points- I agree with SMSPlanstu... Especially with the science center. I took my friends from San Diego, Chicago and Seattle to the Science center - I was raving the whole time about how they would love it - and it was down right boring ? we left after 20 minutes. It is so geared toward 8 year olds. Like Museum of Natural History in Chicago or the Smithsonian in DC... gear it to adults but make it so kids understand.



But that is for another post?. If the county is in our MSA or CSA ? we should all pay into a general fund for regional cultural facilities, supporting stuff mainly in the city <where> but also in those locations. 16 for CSA (or 15 for MSA) counties and the city with nearly 3 million people paying into a fund could help us compete more or even beat Chicago on a LOT of fronts.

Don't forget, do the market research survey as you leave and tell them to add St. Charles County to the Museum-Taxing district.

sms...i'm confused.. how will adding st. chuck help the zoo...

More tax dollars for the museum district. Currently the museum district tax only comes from St Louis City and County

mcarril wrote:More tax dollars for the museum district. Currently the museum district tax only comes from St Louis City and County

I would be totally supportive of adding St. Charles county to the taxing district. Think of how many Toyota Siennas or Honda Odysseys crammed full of soccer moms and their children come from St. Charles County to the zoo on a yearly basis...we SHOULD be paying taxes for these free amenities that you can't find in any other city for the most part. I personally wouldn't mind at all.



But would this open the way for other adjacent counties to be taxed too? Whole 'nother can o' worms I guess.



BTW, I felt like a sinner by saying I lived in STL county when we went to the Botanical Gardens (I was with two people that live near the Loop plus one KC person) to pay less...I should have said just keep the change, or make me wear a paper bag over my head in this heat!

I say put it to a vote - if they say "we dont want to pay for these cultural attractions that we clearly use" we should check IDs at the door - out of towners are free, STL county/City is free - but other locations in the metro area are charged $$....

What about St. Clair County on the Illinois side of the river? Should it be included as well? Much of it is, in fact, closer to the zoo than St. Charles County is and there are plenty of Illinois license plates to be seen in the parking lot.

I love the two choices by the way.

I'd like to see a bistate district that includes Saint Charles, Saint Clair, and Madison counties. Each of them has (or will probably develop eventually) cultural institutions that could be included in the district as well, so people could see tangible benefits in their own communities as well as the greater metropolitan area.

I agree, I think there should be taxes for the surrounding counties however I wonder if that will ever happen. If they don't want to contribute, I wonder if STL county and city will give some kind of ID that would allow only county or city residents free access to the zoo. Then maybe charge a fee to everyone else.....the only thing that sucks about that is how much visitors from out of town always rave about our wonderful free zoo.

Also, if the additional counties were included, I'd see it more as an opportunity to spread out the tax burden instead of an automatic increase in funding for the zoo, etc. If there were plans to improve the offerings of the taxing district that benefitted the metro area as a whole, that's fine, but if it's just taxing more people without a plan to properly use the funds collected, that's where I'd start to see a problem.



Of course, that means I'm pretty much suggesting that the populations of St. Charles and St. Clair Counties see a tax increase and those of St. Louis City and County would see a corresponding tax decrease. Good luck getting that to happen.

I'd go with non-resident fee. Let the kids in free though, charge the adults. Museums, Zoo, etc.