Put Up Or Shut Up

With the news today that a ticket tax is not going to be considered by the State Assembly before next year at the earliest and GPAC2012's recognition that Greensboro tax payers are not going to support a bond referendum and that city leaders are scared to institute COPs (Certificates of Participation) it is now apparent that no matter where the PAC is to be built, Mayor "Marionette" Perkins and his happy band of downtown developers are going to have to look elsewhere for money to fill their building addictions. So what are their options?

They could start robbing banks or mugging little old ladies but I doubt they have the stomach for doing time in anything less than luxury prisons so I suspect we can rule that one out.

Bake sales? Hey, it worked for Martin Eakes when he built the Self-Help Credit Union... Yeah, I doubt Robbie knows how to bake too.

You reckon Robbie Perkins and Roy Carroll have $70 Million Dollars between them? What if we throw in Skip Alston and Milton Kern? Ross Harris? Nah, me neither.

How about... No, probably not.

So how do we go about paying for a Greensboro Performing Arts Center? Why not the good old fashion American way?

In the City of Detroit there are 49 performing arts centers. Most were built not by taxpayers but by non profit foundations itching to put their names on public buildings.

In Cleveland, Ohio there are at least 10 performing arts centers, many of them built by non profit foundations.

Los Angeles, California has at least 10 PACs and several of those were built by non profit foundations.

Even the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Arlington, Virginia was built by non profits. As a matter of fact: one of the non profit foundations that pitched in to build support the Kennedy Center was (drum-roll please) The Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro. That's right, according to Federal Tax returns CCFG donated to a performing arts center in another city in another state.

So to GPAC2012, the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro, the Bryan Foundation and the other local non profits who want to build a Greensboro Performing Arts Center, I say build it the good old fashioned American way and pay for it with your foundation dollars just like non profit foundations all across America have built performing arts centers for over a century.

You see, unlike here in Greensboro where non profit managers look for ways to spend the public trust, in real world class cities, the non profit foundations spend to build the public trust.

Update: It has been pointed out to me that the Kennedy Center is located in Washington, DC and not in Arlington, Virginia but Federal Tax Filings for CCFG indicate donations to the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Arlington, Virginia. Perhaps the Kennedy Center maintains an office in Arlington?

Continue to article #110 Spag To The Rescue.