State Fair of Virginia files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
One of the Commonwealth’s most historic and revered events has asked for legal protection as it tries to repay its outstanding debts. Is the fair at risk of becoming extinct?
The State Fair of Virginia (SFVA) announced that it has voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to restructure existing debts.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Curry A. Roberts, said that the bankruptcy filing will help the organization’s ailing financial portfolio that underlies its existing bank loan. SFVA owns less than half of the holdings it previously had in 2007. They claim that the majority of their losses came with the stock market drop in 2009, which has made the existing payment of both principle and interest impossible. Officials at SFVA assert that operations will continue in an otherwise normal fashion during the extent of the bankruptcy process.
“The State Fair has operated in Virginia for 157 years and we will take every step necessary to protect and continue this wonderful tradition,” Roberts said in a press release. “This is a one-time financial event which should support continued operations and allow SVFA to emerge with a sustainable financial structure. This is the responsible step to take to support the Fair and our other operations.”
SFVA, a 501-c3, not-for-profit company, says that 2011 looks to be its best year in terms of total number of events and attendance at its Doswell, Virginia location. Attendance at the 2011 State Fair posted a 32% increase over 2010.
“SFVA is much more than just one event,” Roberts said, “and we’re so much more than midway rides and fried candy bars. Each year we provide a venue for tens of thousands of youth and families to showcase their farm animals, enter apple pies and Brunswick stews in food competitions and display quilts, paintings and handmade crafts.”
Since 1989, more than $1.7 million of youth scholarship has been distributed to Virginia students so that the recipient may pursue post-secondary studies. The SFVA has been committed to raising money for youth to continue their education since the organization’s creation in 1854.
“We absolutely intend to emerge from this proceeding stronger than before with a sustainable financial model that will allow the State Fair of Virginia to build on its tradition of showcasing Virginia’s cherished agricultural and rural traditions for generations to come,” Roberts said.
photo by Taramisu
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“They claim that the majority of their losses came with the stock market drop in 2009, which has made the existing payment of both principle and interest untenable.”
That sounds like poor stewardship. There is a lot of that going around already.
Speaking of bankruptcy and poor stewardship…
Will there be any fallout for Dominion Resources from the MF Global Bankruptcy? It appears subsidiaries of Dominion were petitioning the Bankruptcy Court, whereas it seemed that Dominion Resources was one of the customers who did not receive their cash or property back. I did not notice any SEC disclosure.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-30/mf-global-trustee-james-giddens-says-jpmorgan-work-by-law-firm-was-limited.html
I don’t necessarily expect RVANews to be on top of this business story, but where is the Times Dispatch or other local CORPORATE media?
I swear, its like the Richmond regional reporters can’t report anything unless they get an approved press release from the local, fucking 1% pink boys in the corner offices.
There’s never a bad time to change the subject, is there?
Nice segue.
Still speaking of bankrupcy, Paul, even if the mainstream media is not giving a complete picture.
Speaking of which, from urbansurvival.com:
http://www.urbansurvival.com/blog/?p=4616
Dad,
For the two stupid years I spent slaving away in laboratories at the University of New Orleans(and didn’t graduate, thank you Hurricane Katrina!) I am up to my eyeballs in student debt. Auntie Suzie graduated from UW without a cent of debt. Because college was so cheap back then your mom & pop could afford to pay for her tuition. Things ain’t that way anymore. Me and everyone I know is so far in the red financially that the light at the end of the tunnel is dimmer and farther away than Alpha Centari. Seriously. The light at the end of my personal financial black hole is so distant I believe it to be a quasar. Needless to say I have decided to declare bankruptcy again. And I am not ashamed. Hell, banks and big businesses have more Chapter Elevens than Amazon dot com!
Young people today are screwed. Every aspect of this economy, this financial market is FUBAR. Luckily I am an Empath and a spiritual person who lacks much of an interest in material wealth. But it is so bad that even I am appalled by how fucked up our financial system is, because it is so terrible. A typical month for me these days has questions like, hmmm, should I buy asthma medicine, or food? This is an insane way to live!
Needless to say I am taking my personal disgust with the status quo and joining with others in an act of civil disobedience. I have nothing to lose. My credit score is already a negative number. My credit score is probably so bad it is an imaginary, irrational number. Today I signed the Occupy Student Debt Pledge. Check out the website!
The people need to take the country back. Us here in the 99.9% cannot afford lobbyists. I’ve always been a rebel, but now I have a cause I believe in.
Love
Denise”
Hmmm…how does one respond?
“Dear Denise,
You may recall that in your case, as well as that of your brother and sister, I declined to sign on for any parental responsibility for student loans, and I specifically would not fill out a free application for federal student aid form either, since I saw the handwriting of this on the wall a long, long time ago.
You may recall that the original intent of the student loan program was to set up a revolving account where federal money put in could be “recycled” so that other (future) students could use that money.
Unfortunately, however, the higher education “system” is really a business model as I have written many times.
The “just” amount of a student loan should be the repayment of the original purchasing power of the debt. In other words, since you were going to school in NOLA in 2000-2001, the amount of the debt should be with interest charges and all, should be fairly modest.
For example, if you had a student loan debt of $3,000 in 2000, the inflation-adjusted amount to pay off today using “offishul” Federal Reserve inflation adjustments, would be $3,943.
However, as you are no doubt experiencing, this is NOT the case. The federal student loans – including collection efforts – has been turned into its own business model. Hence, typical loan rates are inflation plus a fair bit of annual overhead.
The justification for this is people will not pay off their loans, as you are contemplating, along with millions of others.
Unfortunately, bankruptcy will not automatically discharge your loan obligation. As the Student Borrower Assistance site notes:
“Student loans are difficult, but not impossible, to discharge in bankruptcy. To do so, you must show that payment of the debt “will impose an undue hardship on you and your dependents.”
The additional discussion at the above link is instructive and your best chance of success is to demonstrate that you have already repaid the loan plus an adjustment for inflation (So $4,000 in payments documented) would seem to be a convincing case.
Also, until the bankruptcy is done, do not reduce your standard of living, since current expenses and so forth are considered. You need a car to get to work, there are legal requirements for insurance, and you get to budget food and so forth.
You may be interested to know – since this is one of those statistics which doesn’t get much “news” play, that if I’m crunching the numbers from the American Bankruptcy Institute right, filings for bankruptcy were up 88 percent in 2010 compared with just three years earlier, 2007.
You’re not the only one on this sinking ship.
On a more cheerful note, your Christmas check will be in the mail later on today.
Love Dad
President, National Bank of Dad
NOT a member of FDIC, dammit but I’d sure like some of that TARP money anyway.
Speaking of which, two things: The personal bankruptcy rate is presently running about 1 per each 200 people in America per year. Which means if you work 20 years, the odds of going banko in there may be one in ten, or working 40-years, as much as one in five…
And did you see what Alan Grayson and Ron Paul are pointing to here in the last week, or so? A report called:
FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM Opportunities Exist to Strengthen Policies and Processes for Managing Emergency Assistance
A decaf response is “No kidding…” But after you read this little summary of:
Page 131 – The total lending for the Fed’s “broad-based emergency programs” was $16,115,000,000,000. That’s right, more than $16 trillion. The four largest recipients, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Bank of America, received more than a trillion dollars each. The 5th largest recipient was Barclays PLC. The 8th was the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, PLC. The 9th was Deutsche Bank AG. The 10th was UBS AG. These four institutions each got between a quarter of a trillion and a trillion dollars. None of them is an American bank.
…you may wish to update your response to something like “Holy shit, Batman, the MSM really screwed us on coverage of this one, didn’t they?”
By the way, still no mention of the MF Global story in the local corporate media. No mention of Dominion Resources’ possible exposure.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/corzine-dont-know-where-firms-122722077.html
This sort of thing of media blackout thing happens in small towns like Richmond and people need to be aware of it. You cannot trust the corporate media to report the truth.
We really need to see some people GO TO JAIL for corporate crimes.
http://seekingalpha.com/currents/post/104721
Wachovia (WFC) will pay $148M to settle charges it rigged at least 58 municipal bond reinvestment transactions in 25 states and Puerto Rico from 1997 to 2005. As usual, Wachovia won’t admit or deny the allegations –
I know things like carjackings and shootings grab attention, but people need to pay attention to other serious crimes and start demanding justice.
Massey corporate fat cats should be GOING TO JAIL!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/20/us/20mine.html?pagewanted=all
Scott burger, you literally have no idea what you are talking about. You live your activist life crying about corporate conspiracy theories never realizing that this city, as would any other, turn to dust without the large corporations. In this latest example, you are trying to grasp at some mysterious wrong doing in a Court petition by a corporation. Do you even understand the context with which you ask these totally ignorant questions? Seriously, you are being completely ignorant, you obviously have no clue what is going on here, what the overall context of such court petitions are, etc…its time to crawl back into your oregon hill hole, and stare out at all those beatiful big buildings representing the great corporate presence that plays a big role in making Richmond great.
Your rants are getting longer and now dropping F bombs…you’ll get a lot of respect that way….only fellow activists that dont understand how the world works in any level of detail, but love to complain and cry about those that are successful would have any interest in the garbage you spew.
If you are not knowledgable about a certain complex subject, it would be best to just move on or start educating yourself so youndont sound so ridiculously ignorant.
Tepe
Tepe,
Which part is untrue?
Is it the piece that appeared in Bloomberg news about Dominion Resources, the Wachovia piece from SeekingAlpha, or the NYT article on Massey that Anonymous cited?
Are you saying that these professional news sites are ridiculous and erroneous?
C’mon, if I am so ignorant, why don’t you lay some truth on me instead of personally attacking me?
Frankly, I think you are the one who does not know what you are talking about. What’s sadder is you do not seem to know what to even do about it.
Still no local coverage!
We are talking about a former Congressman who says he does not know where a billion dollars went from his company.
http://seekingalpha.com/currents/post/105585
Wednesday, December 14, 9:58 AM Things are getting testy at MF Global’s (MFGLQ.PK) bankruptcy hearing today. Since nobody can seem to figure out where exactly the missing customer funds ran off to, attorneys repping MF Global customers are objecting to allowing the estate for the company to burn through its cash position while all the confusion reigns.
As the search for the “missing” $1.2 billion in client funds rolls on, Gerald Celente has a message for all Americans: “If you don’t have your money under your pillow or mattress, you don’t have it all. It’s not safe.”
http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/money-not-safe-gerald-celente-moral-mf-global-144949248.html