The Associated Press

COLUMBUS - The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium could add to its variety of undersea creatures and jungle critters with an extra $4 million a year from a proposed property tax increase.

Zoo executives, who plan to ask Franklin County commissioners to put the tax hike on the March ballot, say the extra cash would largely go toward building new exhibits.

"The new stuff keeps the people coming and works to help the organization to sustain itself," said Jerry Borin, the zoo's executive director.

The zoo board voted last week to seek a 10-year replacement levy, which would take effect in 2005.

It would raise $3.5 million to $4.5 million more than the current tax, which generates about $13.5 million. Franklin County residents would pay $23 per $100,000 of home valuation, an increase of about $6, with the new tax.

Borin said the proposal is in its early stages.

The levy provides 75 percent of the cost to build new exhibits, Borin said. It also provides more than a quarter of the $25 million operating budget for the zoo complex, which also includes a golf course.

Last year, the complex and the adjacent Wyandot Lake water and amusement park directly contributed about $70 million to the local economy, according to the zoo's own study. That included construction spending, salaries and wages paid to its workers and other operating expenses.

Borin said the zoo is on pace to have 1.3 million visitors this year, which would be its highest attendance in more than a decade.

The zoo attracted about 1.4 million visitors in 1992, he said. Last year, about 1.2 million came, the study said.

Since 1994, the Columbus Zoo has added a number of exhibits including Manatee Coast, a 190,000-gallon indoor habitat for up to five manatees that opened in 1999, and the African Forest, which opened in 2000 and contains wildlife and a habitat of a central African rain forest.