{"id":304433,"date":"2026-05-07T15:41:36","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T15:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/304433\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T15:41:36","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T15:41:36","slug":"petition-drive-aims-to-put-calm-zoo-tax-measure-on-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/304433\/","title":{"rendered":"Petition drive aims to put CALM Zoo tax measure on ballot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) \u2014 More than 32,500 Kern County residents have signed a petition that could determine the future of CALM Zoo.<\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;Protect CALM Zoo&#8221; campaign submitted more than 32,500 signatures to county election officials to qualify a measure for the November 2026 ballot.<\/p>\n<p>If approved by voters, the measure would fund CALM Zoo&#8217;s 20-year master plan through a one-eighth cent sales tax.<\/p>\n<p>Supporters say the plan would expand animal habitats, add educational facilities and create a wildlife rehabilitation center.<\/p>\n<p>Campaign leaders say the tax would be dedicated only to the zoo and could not be used for other county programs.<\/p>\n<p>The measure is expected to appear on the November 3 ballot, pending county certification.<\/p>\n<p>This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n<p>Stay in Touch with Us Anytime, Anywhere:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) \u2014 More than 32,500 Kern County residents have signed a petition that could determine the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":304434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,155,153,152,75663,128339,128340,128341,128342,162,128343,128344],"class_list":["post-304433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-downtown","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news","tag-calm-zoo","tag-calm-zoo-master-plan","tag-calm-zoo-sales-tax","tag-kern-county-ballot-measure","tag-kern-county-election-2026","tag-kern-county-news","tag-kern-county-zoo","tag-protect-calm-zoo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=304433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/304433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/304434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=304433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=304433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=304433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}