Zoo group alleges county retaliation after refusing $1 million aquarium request

A fight over a $1 million ask has widened into a test of who controls Onondaga County’s biggest park and aquarium dollars, and who gets punished for saying no. The Friends of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo told lawmakers that county officials pressed them for $1 million for Harborview Aquarium, then retaliated after the nonprofit refused.

At a Tuesday, April 15, 2026 hearing before an Onondaga County legislative committee, the zoo group said the pressure had gone on for months. Attorney Megan Thomas told lawmakers that an agreement allowing the Friends to keep operating the zoo gift shop was suddenly held up after the donation request was rejected. The nonprofit said the county’s actions could cripple its operations.

The Friends of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that runs the zoo gift shop and jungle cafe, with every profit going back to the Rosamond Gifford Zoo. Losing or delaying that arrangement would matter well beyond a single contract, because the group’s revenue helps support day-to-day zoo operations in Burnet Park.

County officials said the $1 million request was a thing of the past. But the dispute landed in the middle of a much larger political fight over Harborview Aquarium, the county-backed project at Syracuse’s Inner Harbor. County officials said the aquarium was about 66% complete and put its total cost at $103.8 million. The project was originally approved in 2022 by a narrow 9-8 vote, with an $85 million estimate, before costs climbed by about $11 million and the current figure was disclosed.

The aquarium’s funding structure has only deepened the skepticism. On March 4, 2025, the Onondaga County Legislature voted 13-4 to remove a rule that had required legislative approval for private donations over $1,500. By early April 2026, lawmakers had been told that Friends of Onondaga County Aquarium had raised nearly $7.6 million, but 41 of 42 donations remained secret. The largest publicly identified gift was a $5.7 million transfer from the county-controlled Greater Syracuse Sound Stage Development Corporation, financed through the sale of a former film-hub building tied to an earlier state film initiative.

County Executive Ryan McMahon has said that money could be justified because the aquarium might support filming. County Comptroller Marty Masterpole has argued it is still taxpayer money. The Friends of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo said they had also gone to the Gifford Foundation to ask whether their own raised funds could be redirected, but the foundation did not back sending that money to the aquarium.

The hearing sharpened a question that now hangs over Harborview Aquarium and county government alike: whether the project is being built through ordinary fundraising, or through a mix of public pressure, hidden donations and county leverage that leaves little room for dissent.