Penguins will be marching into the Kansas City Zoo, thanks to a welcome vote Tuesday.
Tuesday’s decision to build a bigger and better Kansas City Zoo was an encouraging victory for regional cooperation.
Voters in Jackson and Clay counties defied the skeptics and showed once again that people in the metropolian area really can pull together for a worthwhile cause.
The zoo tax was just the second successful multi-county effort by voters in this region to finance important projects. The first was the bistate sales tax that Jackson, Clay, Platte and Johnson counties approved in 1996 to help save and renovate Union Station. A followup bistate election in 2004 for the arts and sports stadiums failed at the polls, unfortunately.
So until Tuesday, no one really knew whether voters in multiple counties would ever embrace a similar election.
But they did. So congratulations to the zoo and its many supporters. They are about to embark on an outstanding plan to add penguins and more big cats, build new exhibits and create yet another first-class attraction in the metropolitan area.
The zoo proved to be the right cause at the right time. Director Randy Wisthoff rolled out a detailed plan to give Kansas Citians one of the better zoos in the nation. Officials also smartly offered residents in both counties benefits such as reduced admission prices in exchange for approving the higher sales tax.
One of the zoo’s early tasks will be clearly communicating when those benefits will start for residents in Jackson and Clay counties, and how people can take advantage of them. The zoo also must make it a top priority to complete the promised penguin exhibit as quickly as possible, followed in subsequent years by the pledged additions of more animals and other exhibits.
Zoo supporters have one more duty when it comes to regional cooperation.
They must pursue court cases in Platte and Cass counties, where elected officials used bogus arguments and refused to put legally valid initiative petitions on behalf of the zoo tax on the ballot.Voters in those counties should get the chance in 2012 to endorse the zoo’s expansion plans.
With even broader support from the region, the zoo could more quickly make its planned improvements while also extending reduced admission prices and other benefits to more local residents.
Voters in Jackson and Clay counties defied the skeptics and showed once again that people in the metropolian area really can pull together for a worthwhile cause.
The zoo tax was just the second successful multi-county effort by voters in this region to finance important projects. The first was the bistate sales tax that Jackson, Clay, Platte and Johnson counties approved in 1996 to help save and renovate Union Station. A followup bistate election in 2004 for the arts and sports stadiums failed at the polls, unfortunately.
So until Tuesday, no one really knew whether voters in multiple counties would ever embrace a similar election.
But they did. So congratulations to the zoo and its many supporters. They are about to embark on an outstanding plan to add penguins and more big cats, build new exhibits and create yet another first-class attraction in the metropolitan area.
The zoo proved to be the right cause at the right time. Director Randy Wisthoff rolled out a detailed plan to give Kansas Citians one of the better zoos in the nation. Officials also smartly offered residents in both counties benefits such as reduced admission prices in exchange for approving the higher sales tax.
One of the zoo’s early tasks will be clearly communicating when those benefits will start for residents in Jackson and Clay counties, and how people can take advantage of them. The zoo also must make it a top priority to complete the promised penguin exhibit as quickly as possible, followed in subsequent years by the pledged additions of more animals and other exhibits.
Zoo supporters have one more duty when it comes to regional cooperation.
They must pursue court cases in Platte and Cass counties, where elected officials used bogus arguments and refused to put legally valid initiative petitions on behalf of the zoo tax on the ballot.Voters in those counties should get the chance in 2012 to endorse the zoo’s expansion plans.
With even broader support from the region, the zoo could more quickly make its planned improvements while also extending reduced admission prices and other benefits to more local residents.
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