mariza
07-23-2009, 08:47 AM
I got this email from the zoo yesterday, we are members and will be sooooo sad if the zoo actually closed! Please call your state rep and tell them how much we need the zoos!
http://www.mass.gov/legis/city_town.htm
July 22, 2009
Dear Friends,
Thank you for your continued support of Franklin Park Zoo and Stone Zoo. Because of you our zoos have become a vital and beloved piece of our local communities and to Massachusetts as a whole. However, we need your help over the next 5 days!
As you likely have heard, a line-item veto decreased the zoos’ state funding by 62% in the next fiscal year’s budget. We cannot sustain operations of the zoos with that level of immediate drastic cut and would soon be out of business. Major metropolitan areas need great zoos and that’s what we’re building at Franklin Park Zoo and Stone Zoo.
But in order to restore the zoo’s state funding, the Legislature must decide to vote on a budget override. That vote is likely next week and we need you to call your legislators in the House before their vote.
Please take the time to contact your state representative and ask them to override the veto and restore the zoo’s funding. Legislators need to hear from you that Franklin Park Zoo and Stone Zoo are important to you and your community.
You can find the contact information for your state representative here, listed by municipality: http://www.mass.gov/legis/city_town.htm
Finally, there has been a great deal of public debate about the fate of the zoo and its animals. I regret that and acknowledge that it was a direct result of our trying to communicate critical information and doing so inarticulately. The reality is that if we can not fulfill our mission and ZNE can’t meet its financial obligations to run the facilities, it becomes more expensive for the state, not less. Closing a zoo is a lengthy and costly proposition and the budget expenditure that would fall on the state would increase from the 60% it is today to operate opened facilities, to 100% to sustain the closed facilities—more than the savings of the $4 million veto.
The issue is not really how to close the zoos at greater expense to the Commonwealth, but how best to sustain our beloved zoos during these difficult, but temporary economic times and continue our progress towards greater self-sustainability.
Your help is greatly appreciated. And you will make a difference – so please call now!
Sincerely,
John Linehan
President & CEO
Zoo New England
http://www.mass.gov/legis/city_town.htm
July 22, 2009
Dear Friends,
Thank you for your continued support of Franklin Park Zoo and Stone Zoo. Because of you our zoos have become a vital and beloved piece of our local communities and to Massachusetts as a whole. However, we need your help over the next 5 days!
As you likely have heard, a line-item veto decreased the zoos’ state funding by 62% in the next fiscal year’s budget. We cannot sustain operations of the zoos with that level of immediate drastic cut and would soon be out of business. Major metropolitan areas need great zoos and that’s what we’re building at Franklin Park Zoo and Stone Zoo.
But in order to restore the zoo’s state funding, the Legislature must decide to vote on a budget override. That vote is likely next week and we need you to call your legislators in the House before their vote.
Please take the time to contact your state representative and ask them to override the veto and restore the zoo’s funding. Legislators need to hear from you that Franklin Park Zoo and Stone Zoo are important to you and your community.
You can find the contact information for your state representative here, listed by municipality: http://www.mass.gov/legis/city_town.htm
Finally, there has been a great deal of public debate about the fate of the zoo and its animals. I regret that and acknowledge that it was a direct result of our trying to communicate critical information and doing so inarticulately. The reality is that if we can not fulfill our mission and ZNE can’t meet its financial obligations to run the facilities, it becomes more expensive for the state, not less. Closing a zoo is a lengthy and costly proposition and the budget expenditure that would fall on the state would increase from the 60% it is today to operate opened facilities, to 100% to sustain the closed facilities—more than the savings of the $4 million veto.
The issue is not really how to close the zoos at greater expense to the Commonwealth, but how best to sustain our beloved zoos during these difficult, but temporary economic times and continue our progress towards greater self-sustainability.
Your help is greatly appreciated. And you will make a difference – so please call now!
Sincerely,
John Linehan
President & CEO
Zoo New England