The first thing you don't do is force the issue down taxpayers' throats. And while Ed Catalano, who first floated the idea on Facebook, and I both believe Greensboro would support a bond issue to build a state of the art downtown Greensboro Aquarium, we both agree that bonds and tax increases should always be a last resort.
One way to fund such a venture and I currently believe the best way, should be with private money through donations, fundraisers, etc. The fastest way might be to get lucky like Atlanta did and have a rich benefactor foot the entire bill but we're not holding our breath. I'm thinking that perhaps the City of Greensboro should loan the project from $1 Million to $10 Million Dollars to finance a private stock offering to allow citizens of Greensboro to buy shares of the company at the best prices then go on to the IPO when shares can be sold to anyone, anywhere.
In return for the loan, the City of Greensboro would not only get back it's investment but also a number of shares of preferred stock to be determined.
Now obviously we shouldn't run straight to the City Council and expect them to loan $10 Million based on no more than an idea but also, unlike the bungled GPAC effort, we don't need to spend $300,000 of taxpayer funding to find out if Greensboro residents want to buy shares in DGA. Thanks to social networking, blogs and e-mail newsletters we have the capability to guage interest and actually set up not the actual sales of shares but the process of sales without investing a cent.
Of course, the GPAC folks could have done the same thing but saving our money wasn't on their agenda.
And just so you know, while I will buy as many shares as I can possibly afford I will not receive any pay for my efforts in this project and will gladly step aside when a proper management team is put together that does not include Greensboro's "non profits." I think you know who I'm talking about. Besides, who am I kidding, I could never run this thing.
Of course there are other ways and in the coming days myself and others will be exploring those options.
