By Shawn Boburg
The Herald News
NEW YORK — The 9/11 Memorial in lower Manhattan was built mostly with private donations. But the non-profit that runs the memorial says tax dollars are needed to maintain it.
The debate over proposed federal legislation that would provide the memorial’s private foundation with $20 million in federal money each year, or about one-third of its operating budget, begins this week with hearings in Washington.
Proponents say the federal money is needed to ensure the site of a national tragedy does not fall into disrepair decades from now, when private fund raising will get more difficult. The non-profit wants to maintain full control over the operations of the memorial and museum.
But critics, including some 9/11 victims’ family members, equate the legislation to a “bailout” of the private non-profit and are calling for the National Park Service to run the memorial if federal money is contributed. They say that would bring more transparency and spending oversight.
“To have a bailout with no strings attached is not responsible and not what the public wants,” said Sally Regenhard of the 9/11 Parents & Families of Firefighters and WTC Victims, who lost her firefighter son.
The federal government’s national park agency runs several other large memorials — the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument at Pearl Harbor, which draws nearly 1.5 million visitors a year, and the Flight 93 National Memorial near Shanksville, Pa. It also operates the Statue of Liberty.
Officials at the 9/11 Memorial envision an arrangement more akin to the U.S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., a public-private partnership that relies heavily on federal money. The federal government supplies about 56 percent of the Holocaust Museum’s $90 million budget. But it also has oversight. The museum is controlled by a panel whose members are appointed by the president, its financial books are open to the public and its staff includes federal employees whose salaries are set by pay scales.
Joe Daniels, the president of the 9/11 Memorial Foundation, acknowledged that the arrangement would be unique.
“I think it’s groundbreaking legislation in the sense that it recognizes the federal government has a role here,” he said. The difference between the 9/11 Memorial and the Holocaust Museum, he said, is that the museum in Washington, D.C., was created by the federal government, whereas the memorial “exists already.”
The 9/11 Memorial is run by the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center Foundation, a tax-exempt organization. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg heads its board of directors. The actual land the memorial is built on is owned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Museum will charge
About $400 million of the $650 million used to construct the memorial and museum came from private donations, the rest from the federal government, Daniels said.
The memorial, an 8-acre plaza with two large reflecting pools in the footprints of the original towers, opened last month on the 10th anniversary of the attacks. Admission is free. The museum, which is being built under the memorial, will open next year and visitors will be charged a fee.
A Senate committee will hold a hearing Wednesday on the proposed legislation, filed by Hawaii’s Daniel K. Inouye, who heads the chamber’s powerful Appropriations Committee.
Regenhard and a small group of vocal family members have been sending letters to legislators, arguing the plan would tie a “permanent albatross around the neck of the American taxpayer” if operations continue under the current management. Regenhard has criticized the foundation in the past for a lack of transparency and for not seeking input from family members — claims denied by memorial officials.
The group of family members also says the salaries of the non-profit’s executives are excessive. Four received total compensation of more than $300,000 in 2009 — including Daniels, who was paid $371,000 — and four more earned more than $200,000, according to tax records.
Memorial officials point out that the Holocaust Museum director’s base pay is around $450,000 and the president of the federally funded Smithsonian Institution makes more than $520,000.
Federal employees who run the nation’s largest parks and memorials make a fraction of that.
Salaries for directors of the National Park Service’s two large facilities in the New York area — the Statue of Liberty and the Gateway National Recreation Area — range from $128,000 to $155,000 depending on years on the job, according to the park service.
Daniels said the equivalent of 300 full-time employees work at the memorial and he said the $60 million budget was lean given the estimated 5 million visitors expected each year. The museum is expected to draw another 2.5 million people, he said.
“We have proven not only to the city and the country, but to the world, that we’re running the memorial well,” he said.
Virginia Bauer, who sits on the memorial foundation’s board of directors and lost her husband on 9/11, agreed and called federal assistance “essential.”
“It was an attack on our country and considering the economic climate, we’ve done a great job of getting donations from individuals and private organizations,” she said. “We’ve been very prudent.”
She said the memorial would not survive on fund raising alone in the coming decades.
“People say they’ll never forget, but things change,” she said. “It’s human nature.”
A provision in the proposed bill would also allow the federal government to take ownership of the memorial, but an Inouye aide said the $20 million in federal money was not contingent on a transfer in ownership. The Port Authority, the governors of New York and New Jersey, and the New York City mayor would have to approve the transfer to the secretary of the interior, who oversees the National Park Service.
“I don’t foresee that,” Daniels said of the ownership transfer. “It’s an extra safety net that says if there are some circumstances, if we are unable to maintain this site, the land would transfer and trigger the federal government’s help.”
Call for controls
Critics like Regenhard say that could mean that, decades from now, the federal government might be asked to pay for costly repairs if the private foundation runs out of money. She and others want stronger financial controls now.
“This legislation is in its infancy and many of the details of how the federal presence will be established and managed are subject to ongoing discussions,” said Peter Boylan, a spokesman for Inouye. He said the final bill will address “the concerns of all stakeholders while ensuring that this lasting tribute to the victims of 9/11 is adequately funded and maintained.”
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