A BB&T, wealthy investor and Carolina Bank bailout for Skip Alston's Civil Rights Museum and the Simpkins PAC

"The International Civil Rights Center & Museum still wants $1.5 million from the city, but it has a new plan for using it.

Museum leaders say city money — $750,000 this year and lesser amounts in the following two years — will help stabilize the struggling 3-year-old facility."

Does more money up front mean the museum is running low on cash and is in dire financial straits, partly caused by Skip Alston's participation?

"City Council members got the details of the museum’s revised request at a series of meetings Thursday."

Back room deals?

John Newsome of the News & Record attended the meeting, along with Skip Alston, Earl Jones etc...

"Council members might vote on the money at their next meeting, which is Aug. 5.

With the city’s help, the museum “will be able to generate enough funding to carry us through this year and the next two,” said Melvin “Skip” Alston, the chairman of the museum’s board of directors and a former Guilford County commissioner. “We just need a little bit of breathing room this year.”

Did Skip pull the Simpkins PAC endorsement extortion in the "series of meetings?

"The museum ...got about 57,000 paying visitors last year, far fewer than the 200,000 its leaders projected. Annual revenues have sagged by more than half..."

Were Skip Alston's attendance projections relatively bogus?

The museum didn't live up to it's goals.

The museum is failing under its current leadership.

"The museum is running a monthly deficit of about $150,000 despite cutting staff to five full-time positions. Alston said loan interest payments and facility depreciation accounts for all but roughly $30,000 per month of that."

BB&T syndicated the museum tax credits for investors.

The tax credits were most likely purchased by wealthy investors and packaged tax credit funds.

"In May, the museum asked the city for $500,000 a year over the next three years to help students come to Greensboro and see the new program. Council members wanted more details about the proposed grant and the museum’s finances, and the request never came to a vote.

Museum leaders laid out their revised request Thursday. Among the details:

The museum wants $750,000 this year, $500,000 in 2014 and $250,000 in 2015.

$100,000 would go toward paying off a loan that comes due next month." [Carolina Bank]

If the investors and BB&T are bailed out by Greensboro's taxpayers, the failed leadership will remain in place.

"...Since 1995, the city has given the museum $975,000 for planning and building repairs."

John Newsome
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If BB&T and wealthy investors are not bailed out and free market capitalism reigns via Greensboro's City Council not continuing to hand out taxpayer money to those who control votes in East Greensboro via Simkins PAC endorsements controlled by Skip and friends, the museum goes under, declares bankruptcy, eliminates the debt and comes out clean without Skip and Simkins involvement/control, which means the museum could most likely survive as viable enterprise.

The Museum has not submitted audited financial statements.

I propose letting the museum go under, let BB&T and the investors take the hit, remove Skip from the equation, and leave behind an ethically clean Civil Rights Museum in Greensboro, preferably connected to the City of Greensboro Historical Museum, which should also in part include the Carolina Theater, as the blacks only section still exists above the balcony.

Nancy Vaughan suggested a similar package deal including the Greensboro Science Center.

George Hartzman
https://www.facebook.com/Hartzman
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The International Civil Rights Museum's 2011 IRS tax form 990 and what looks like a bailout for BB&T and wealthy investors, with what looks like some pretty important unanswered questions