Voters have historically been strong supporters of Providence’s Roger Williams Park Zoo, most recently approving a $15 million bond in 2014 and another $12 million in 2022.
Zoo operators were counting on that support again with an $18 million request for the November ballot for exhibits to house new attractions, including rhinos and lions. But the request was inexplicably left out of the fiscal 2027 state budget expected to be approved by the General Assembly.
Absent an 11th-hour budget amendment adding the request, the city-owned zoo’s operators will be left scrambling for new funding sources at a time when they are already preparing to lose one of their signature attractions. A three-elephant exhibit is scheduled to be shut down next year after the aging pachyderms are relocated to a place that can better care for them.
Zoo Executive Director Stacey Johnson said it was a difficult decision to make because the animals have been part of a beloved exhibit since arriving in 1990.
The zoo, the nation’s third oldest, has weathered the loss of popular animals before and no doubt will do so again. But the long-term plan to create what Mr. Johnson told PBN in this week’s cover story will be a new “gee whiz experience” will need reworking.
“We need to take a solid look at what order we do the projects,” he said, “what we want to have and what we need to have.”
The zoo is the state’s second-most-popular paid tourist attraction. Voters, rather than lawmakers with competing constituencies, should get to decide on the merits of its major funding requests.