Lots of birds are flying out of downtown Greensboro of late. One in particular is whistling a tune about John Lomax and others who were recently pushed out of the board of Downtown Greensboro Incorporated as part of Nancy Barakat Vaughan and Zack Matheny's failed efforts to solve DGI's issues with transparency and taxpayer funding.
Seems Lomax and friends were happy as flies on turds when they were able to manipulate the board's decisions and direct large chucks of that taxpayer funding their own way but now that they can no longer use DGI to scam the taxpayers they are putting together an effort to do away with the Downtown Business Improvement District which if it happens would end the need for DGI and the BID tax and other taxes that support DGI.
That's not to say DGI couldn't choose to stay in business but it's hard to see why or how it could be done without forcing taxpayers throughout the City of Greensboro to fund it. Remember: over 50% of DGI's city funding comes from taxes collected outside the Business Improvement District.
It well could be that Lomax has a lot of support for his cause. Despite the fact that Lomax has long scammed the taxpayers to fund his own development and construction businesses, many downtown business owners see no benefit to being forced to pay the BID tax and residents outside of downtown have long opposed being taxed to subsidize a handful of downtown business owners who just happen to be very well connected politically. If Lomax really is planning such a move you can expect it to gain traction very quickly as the brain dead DGI board wallows in centuries old parliamentary procedure tactics unable to think on their feet.
If Lomax and friends make this a big deal the public backlash will force the Greensboro City Council to eliminate the BID. Or, at the very least, property taxes to support the BID.
