As is to be expected the Greensboro Performing Arts Center Task Force is turning up the heat with today's LTE in the News & Record written by Greensboro's Gary Nixon who "earns" his living as a building and water consultant to municipal governments and ran for City Council in 2009.
"City Council members are elected to make decisions that best represent the interests of the electorate, not pass the buck.
War Memorial Auditorium has long outlasted its useful life, and apparently private donors are willing to help subsidize a new performing arts center at a $20 million level, one-third of the total cost. Recently, $24 million of improvements to the coliseum were started without a bond referendum. Of the remaining cost to finance a new PAC, $20 million is supposedly needed from an increase in property taxes.
The solution is simple. The City Council should either vote to finance the needed money, tell the committee at what level it would support public financing, or vote to not authorize public funds to be used. If council members are not willing to vote on the issue soon, they are not meeting their responsibility. If they insist on a bond referendum, the result, if passed, would only mean delay and additional cost."
Yes, Gary, the solution is simple and how much do you stand to gain from the building of the Greensboro Performing Arts Center? By the way, Gary, are you privy to who is putting up that apparent $20 Million Dollars? Because 279,000 residents of Greensboro still believe it isn't real. Show us the money and then we'll talk business.
And yes, council members shouldn't pass the buck but this decision should have never gone before City Council in the first place half baked and poorly thought out as it was. Nothing we've been told about GPAC to date has been substantiated-- not one thing. And most of what's been said I've been able to prove wrong all on my own with zero resources. Just think what I could have done with the almost $1 Million Dollars that has been spent on GPAC to date. Why I would have had the whole bunch of you running for the hills, never to return with resources like that. Add in George, Roch, Jeff and a couple more and the whole bunch of you GPACers would be skipping the country with Walker Sanders by now. The fact that you're willing to consider GPAC at all tells us where you stand-- you stand with the decision that will put the most money in your pocket, Greensboro be damned.
Mark my word people, in two weeks there will be a huge effort at the next Greensboro City Council Meeting to take away your right to vote on GPAC next November and if Greensboro citizens do not outnumber the bought and paid for task force consultants and speakers who are all paid to be there the Greensboro City Council will vote to build the downtown Greensboro Performing Arts Center at taxpayers expense.
And mark my word, Greensboro, this time I'm not speaking for you. You are on your own.
