COSI Tax Levy

Yes 70,392 (38%)

No 116,920 (62%)

Precincts Reporting – 789 out of 789 – 100%

Full results here.

And it clearly wasn’t a money issue, since the Children’s Services levy (a 1.5 mill versus COSI’s .5 mill) passed.

“Because COSI is too top heavy with salaries.”

God forbid COSI’s administrators should earn salaries commensurate with running a world-class museum. But you know what, I’ll even give you that. Drop those salaries and it still doesn’t affect what the museum was asking for. Assuming that the top admin makes $200,000, we’ll say that five people make $100,000, and ten people make between $50,000 and $100,000. Total that up, and you’re somewhere in between $1.2 and $1.7M a year. The proposed levy would have brought in approximately $12.5M a year. “Excessive salaries” doesn’t cut it.

“Because a free COSI will become a dumping ground for unruly children and roving gangs.”

God forbid kids of all ages should have free and unfettered access to a musuem dedicated to science and technology. Gee, that’d be awful if they ended up spending time there as opposed to the mall.

Moreover, COSI already requires that kids be accompanied by adults. It’s not as if they let children wander around completely unsupervised. Someone has to be there to be responsible for them.

I’m just angry because I was looking forward to taking my son to COSI one day. COSI’s donors say they can’t continue giving to the museum at the current levels. COSI doesn’t take enough revenue in through admissions to maintain itself. Cutting salaries might help but won’t cure the problem. An additional $12.5 million a year in tax revenues might have.

Sure hope it’s still there in five years.