From: "Michael Hohmann wrote:
> Why aren't state legislators and Library Board/mgmt/Friends debating how to > finance the Minnesota Planetarium and Space Discovery Center in the new > downtown library, employing such innovative schemes? Maybe a combination of > gov't. loans and capital bonding, and a %age of matching funds from the > private sector, (two-thirds state funds- loans & bonding, one-third private > matching), sell naming rights and branded meeting rooms... think Carlson > School, etc. Lease time to colleges/universities; have traveling exhibits. > The loan could be repaid from a portion of the planetarium gate fees over a > 15-20 year period. Do some innovative planning/marketing and make > planetarium revenues a part of the equation. [A deal where contraction isn't > an issue, most staff and management aren't millionaires, the private sector > loves the place and uses it, a majority of the Board are elected by the > public, there's no need for salary caps, and Minneapolis voters already > agreed to pay for nearly 80% of the project- the central library and > planetarium. The Minnesota Planetarium and Space Discovery Center is a > statewide educational resource-- let's pony up some statewide resources!] The Planetarium is part of the new Central Library. The funding for the referendum did not include the Planetarium, only the library. (As you note, the Planetarium is a state resource and appropriately should be paid for out of state resources.) The Library is currently under construction. You need the money now to build the Planetarium . You can't wait so see what fund raising you could do or what corporations may do. You have to do whatever you are going to do now. You could sell bonds to pay for the planetarium. The problem isn't in the borrowing of money but in the paying back of the money. Usually you can't borrow money unless you have a secure way of paying it back. Typically you can't sell bonds based on the revenues from fund raising because you can't guarantee that any of the money will be raised. It isn't clear that gate fees will cover even the operating costs of the facility much less capital costs. Typically colleges and universities don't have a lot of revenue and would not be able to pay large rental fees. You fall back to a general revenue to be able to fund this facility. But this is typical for educational institutions. We don't try to fund elementary schools through fund raising. We see a general benefit to citizens and thus fund it out of general revenues. A specialized educational facility like the Planetarium should be no different. Carol Becker Longfellow _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
