State financing for all seventy-six zoos, botanical gardens, and aquariums in New York will be eliminated in the new fiscal year, which begins in April, under the budget proposed by Gov. David A. Paterson, the New York Times reports.
The proposed cuts come on the heels of a 55 percent reduction in funding — from $9 million to $4 million — for the same institutions made just last month, surprising many organizations that hoped to make it through the end of the year relatively unscathed. Coupled with a precipitous drop in the value of many endowments, as well as a sharp decline in corporate donations, the proposed cuts have left institutions reeling. Assemblyman Steve Englebright called the move “very bad policy” because it would force zoos to lay off people, reduce their living collections, and maybe even close. Particularly troubling, said Englebright, is the impact of the cuts on children, whose interaction at zoos and botanical gardens “leads to a lifetime commitment to caring about the natural world.”
According to Jeffrey Gordon, a spokesman for the New York State Division of the Budget, the reductions are needed to help close a projected budget gap of $15.4 billion in fiscal 2009-10. In times of crisis, he added, state officials prefer to focus resources on capital projects rather than on operating support. Indeed, while state funding comprises a relatively small portion of most of the budgets that will be affected — 2 percent at the Bronx Zoo, for example — having such large cuts come in the middle of the calendar year leaves the groups with less time to make up the shortfall.
Proposed New York State Budget Eliminates Funding for Zoos, Aquariums
