Some question 9/11 Memorial's $60M annual cost

Members of the September 11th Education Trust meet in a restaurant overlooking the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center, Thursday, Sept. 6, 2012, in New York. / AP Photo

(AP) NEW YORK - A debate over balancing the need to honor the memory of Sept. 11 with the enormous costs of running a memorial and museum at ground zero has been reawakened on the eve of the attacks' 11th anniversary, as officials faced questions Monday over the project's expected $60 million-a-year operating budget and an agreement paving the way for the museum's completion was reached.

The number comes on top of the $700 million construction cost of the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum. A report Sunday by The Associated Press noted that $12 million a year would be spent on security, more than the entire operating budgets of Gettysburg National Military Park and the monument that includes the USS Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who leads the board of the nonprofit foundation that controls the museum and memorial, on Monday called the memorial's operating cost a necessity for security and other costs unique to hosting millions of visitors a year on the reborn site of two terror attacks, in 1993 and 2001.

Some congressional Democrats underscored their efforts to help get federal money to cover some of the operating cost, while a Republican senator reiterated his opposition. Even some victims' family members are divided over whether the annual price tag represents the price of paying tribute to the nearly 3,000 lives lost or the cost of unnecessary grandeur.

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At ground zero, several visitors Monday to the memorial plaza were surprised - but not put off - by the $60 million-a-year figure.

"Really?" said Pat Lee, 57, a Walmart manager from Atlanta. But, she said, "I don't think the money is too much. Because it's important to keep alive the memory of what happened."

The memorial, the centerpiece of the rebuilt World Trade Center site, includes a serene, solemn memorial plaza, where waterfalls fill the fallen towers' footprints, and a mostly underground museum that is to house such artifacts as the staircase workers used to escape the attacks.

The plaza opened last year and has drawn 4.5 million visitors so far. The museum was to have been finished by Tuesday, but progress has stopped amid a construction-costs fight between the memorial foundation and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the agency that owns the trade center site. The Port Authority claimed the memorial foundation owed it $300 million for infrastructure and revised project costs; the foundation has argued it's owed money because of project delays.

(At left, watch a report from CBS Evening News correspondent Anthony Mason on the 9/11 Museum's struggle to open on time.)

The parties involved in the dispute said Monday they had reached an agreement. Their memorandum of understanding addresses issues including coordination of the site and general financial terms but doesn't go into detail on specific levels of financing. The agreement outlines that the memorial will have six months' operating expenses on hand as net working capital and that it will give the Port Authority a security deposit equal to six months' utility expenses, but it doesn't say what those figures are.

Even so, it remains unclear how the foundation will cover the costs of running the museum, once it does open.

So far, the foundation has been able to rely on corporate and individual donations and selling memorabilia. The annual expense was about $27.8 million last year, including four months of operating the memorial plaza, according to recently audited financial statements.

But the expense is projected to jump to $60 million after the museum opens. The foundation plans to spend around $12 million a year on private security; operating the waterfalls costs another $4.5 million to $5 million annually, the foundation says.

Foundation officials haven't responded to requests for information about other costs at the site.

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[erkifiy]

These museums and memorials are ridiculous. We are a nation of capitalist opportunists and wimps. This all started withe the US National Holocoust Museum-- and the same template is in place in NYC. Administrators, staff, employees, benefits, admission fees, souvenier shops, The Foreign Tourists will oblingingly go but American what are we doing and at what cost. Firefighters you should be ashamed for buying into and perpetuating this victimhood. Captain Kangaroo in his white glove ringining a shiny bell c'mon America we are better than this. By the way with all due respect Todd Beamer and his now remarried millionaire wife; he was on Flight 93 in Pennsylvania -how does his memory get get latched onto the twin towers jihadist assault. Shouldnt they all then? That lets roll myth is a very thin reed to connect. Tourist traps, Roswell, . Repulsive and degrading

[erkifiy]

These museums and memorials are ridiculous. We are a nation of capitalist opportunists and wimps. This all started withe the US National Holocoust Museum-- and the same template is in place in NYC. Administrators, staff, employees, benefits, admission fees, souvenier shops, The Foreign Tourists will oblingingly go but American what are we doing and at what cost. Firefighters you should be ashamed for buying into and perpetuating this victimhood. Captain Kangaroo in his white glove ringining a shiny bell c'mon America we are better than this. By the way with all due respect Todd Beamer and his now remarried millionaire wife; he was on Flight 93 in Pennsylvania -how does his memory get get latched onto the twin towers jihadist assault. Shouldnt they all then? That lets roll myth is a very thin reed to connect. Tourist traps, Roswell, . Repulsive and degrading

[[e-mail]]

$5 million a year to run a fountain? Thats almost $14,000 a day. What could possibly cost $14,000 a DAY every day 365 days a year to pump water into the air?

[no1blonde]

It is hard to be critical on a day of rememberance. The people who died should be remembered but between then memorials and the millions of dollars to survivors is just not sustainable. Every day people wake up and are at risk of some calamity. Some lose their lives, some injured, and some disabled. But what makes these people's lives anymore valuable than a child on the street in Chicago? Or a person killed during the last hurricane? Life is precious yes but let's put perspective on how we move on.

[Unidude]

Yes, I agree, it is sad, but we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima, killing 150,000+; who knows how many innocent people died, but you see no one mourning over them. Anyway, since these "trade" centers were connected to Wall Street activity, it makes you question the "good" they were doing for this fine country.

[jtdev1]

Some one has to pay for those lavish parties celebrating the deaths of so many.

[Jaylah54200]

I agree. This is much more of a more tourist attraction than tribute. If I had lost somebody from the Trade Towers attack, I'd be personally affronted that people wanted to charge tourists $20 to see some "museum" about it.

I've been to the memorial at Pearl Harbor and it is, as far as I'm concerned, a fitting tribute. I don't think we need a World Trade Tower museum. The memorial is enough.

[signseeker1717]

Actually, the families are prevalent among those saying listing names is not enough - that interpretation and back story are needed.

For example, without them, Gettysburg would simply be a large park. Our citizens need to and SHOULD know what happened there.

Understanding of 9/11 seems obvious to us now, because the events are still fresh in the collective mind, but it won't always be so.

It's important not only for current visitors but FUTURE generations born long after 9/11 to know exactly WHAT happened and WHY.

[marine1957]

"Some question 9/11 Memorial's $60M annual cost"

Add me to that list. Unbelievable what things the Government will spend money on that is wasteful.

[M_Aurelius]

we pay 51 million a year to keep the holocaust museum open? doesnt that seem a little bit to much?

[glebovitz]

hmmm, lets do the comparison. 9/11 an attack on our soil by a group of wacko fundamentalists angered by our policies in the Middle East. Thousands die. Holocaust, 10 million people murdered by ethic cleansing grown from an enlightened western democratic people who elected wacko fascists into power.

9/11 reminds us that we are vulnerable, makes us paranoid, and allows us to give up our freedoms and liberties. The holocaust reminds us that populations can elect leaders in a civilized western country on what is seemingly consolidating platform only to find themselves thrust into state sanctioned genocide. I think the $51 per person is well spent on reminding us that our actions have consequences. I think $20,000 per person per year is a bit much to be reminded that we are vulnerable to terrorist attacks by a group of fundamentalist religious wackos.

Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. Those of us who study history are doomed to watch ignorant people repeat it.

[euge005]

Sounds like the hard core are making money from a sacred place. End it.