TOLEDO, Ohio -- The Center of Science and Industry Museum began 10 years ago as the rebirth of the city’s festival marketplace.

The retail venture failed and the city sought to try something else to bring people downtown.

State lawmakers chipped in $10 million to the effort, paying for the renovation of the former retail building to a children’s science museum.

The money was enough to fix the building, but the museum did not make enough money to stay open on its own.

The museum will soon be closing after voters rejected a special tax levy to provide operating money.

COSI Toledo Board Chairman David Waterman said Friday the exact closing date depends on whether the facility’s 22 full-time employees are willing to accept severance packages on the smaller side.

That may give the museum the financial means to stay open longer. State support for the museum ten years ago did not produce much controversy, if any.

Now though, the state grant looks less attractive.

David Hansen of the Buckeye Institute for Public Policy Solutions, a Columbus-based anti-tax think-tank, said it is a cautionary tale of state spending and what can happen.

“Government doesn’t spend our money very carefully and certainly not as carefully as we would spend our own money,” Hansen said.

Pointing to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, as well as the COSI museum in Toledo, Hansen said state and local governments often try to provide a service when there is insufficient demand for it.

“It creates a lot of waste and missed opportunity. I would be better for those tax dollars were kept in the pockets of Ohioans to create a stronger economy and create the demand for museums that are provided by private interests,” Hansen said.

Hansen said he realizes it is difficult for state lawmakers to turn down requests from local communities that seek state funding for ventures like the COSI museum.

“Legislators may find themselves hard-pressed to say ‘no’, but we at the Buckeye Institute would encourage them to do that and maybe this COSI closing will be a lesson for them for a little while,” Hansen said.

Jim.otte@whiotv.com