Museum Funding
The Castle Museum's funding is more than $1 million. The organization receives 80% of funding from the Saginaw County millage and the other 20% is attained through admissions, donations, grants and other miscellaneous forms of income.
The Museum is important and here's why:​
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We are the repository for the history of Saginaw County.
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We educate the children of Saginaw County.
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We lovingly maintain, for the public, an incredibly beautiful and unique building listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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We safeguard, document, and at times display over 150,000 artifacts of historic importance.
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In addition to a variety of outstanding permanent exhibits, we develop and host temporary and traveling exhibits of cultural and historic importance, including upcoming Smithsonian exhibits.
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This 2020 millage is not a tax increase:
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We will continue to operate under the same level of funding that we've been working with since 2000.
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The Castle Museum millage costs the median home owner in Saginaw County only $0.79 per month.
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This is the smallest millage paid by county taxpayers.
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We've worked tirelessly for two decades to make the same amount of funding go further each year.
If the millage fails in 2020, the Castle Museum, as well as the museums in Bridgeport, Chesaning, Frankenmuth and St. Charles will cease to exist.
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What will happen to the Castle building?
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Taxpayers in Saginaw County will still pay to take care of it. The Castle would transfer back to the County who will be forced, because of the building's historic designation, to maintain it through taxpayer funding.
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What will happen to the 150,000+ items in the collection?
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Unknown - there will be no organization or staff to manage them. We risk losing these vital pieces of Saginaw County's history.
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