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The Future Is About Making Better Choices Now
One of our favorite aphorisms is “every system is perfectly designed to produce the results that it gets.” Memphis is just such a system, and that’s why it’s surprising when the news...
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City And County Mayors’ Truth In Taxation Leads To Property Tax Cuts
City of Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland and Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell recently called for a reduction in their government’s respective tax rates to prevent a windfall from the...
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Improving The Economy With An Open, Diverse, Urgent Process
No one in this community has written more about the need for an economic reboot in the past 13 years than we have. We have written numerous posts about the region’s troubling trajectory,...
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Kent: Residential PILOTs: “Candy” For The Few, Costing Taxpayers Millions
This post is wrtten by Joe B. Kent, local researcher, who has a BBA with a Major in Finance from the University of Memphis and Masters of Science in Instructional Technology. By Joe B....
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Lee Harris Rides The Crest Of A Blue Tsunami
It took about three county elections longer than expected, but when it came last Thursday, it was no blue wave. Rather, it was a tsunami. It swept over every Republican elected...
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$42 Million Worth of Cynicism
The turnout for the recent Shelby County general election attracted a meager 27.5% of registered voters to the polls, a low rate that seems stubbornly consistent. It means that...
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Putting All Economic Development Options On The Table
The idea of the City of Memphis withdrawing from the Memphis and Shelby County Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE) and setting up its own Industrial Development Board seems...
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EDGE Gets The Microscope, But Nine Other Agencies Also Waive Taxes
Approximately $800 million in city and county taxes has been waived in the past 10 years, but when the conversation turns to the out-of-control PILOTs here, attention generally turns...
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Electrolux’s $188 Million Lessons
So what do you get when a city becomes needy, lacks self-esteem, and has no economic development plan to define its priorities? You get Electrolux’s one-sided deal. You get...
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Modest Proposals For Better PILOT Programs
To borrow Shakespeare’s words, the recent conflict and controversy about EDGE tax freezes now seem more than anything to have been sound and fury signifying nothing – or at least...
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Mayor Harris Suggests A Different Course For Tax Incentives
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris’ first State of the County speech February 15, 2019, was one to remember. For the first time, a mayor of county government, which is the largest loser...
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Can PILOTs Be Investments Rather than Entitlements?
In light of Shelby County Mayor’s thoughtful and logical comments expressing his reservations about the way this community, with one of the highest poverty rates in the country,...
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Jimmie Covington Previews County Budget Season’s Impact On Schools
by Jimmie Covington Within a few weeks, Shelby County officials and the Shelby County Board of Education will be submitting proposals on budgets for the new fiscal year that starts...
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Politicians Cite Budget Woes As Property Values Climb
By Jimmie Covington Shelby County had a better than usual growth in its property tax base this year, according to assessed value figures reported by Property Assessor Melvin Burgess’...
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Property Tax Base Increase: Where It’s Coming From
Jimmie Covington’s blog post from last Thursday began with these paragraphs: “Shelby County had a better than usual growth in its property tax base this year, according to assessed value...
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EDGE’s Chance To Send The Right Message
If EDGE approves a tax holiday for a Mississippi bank that wants to build a new Memphis office, it should simply close its doors and put an ATM out front. It now officially will approve...
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Frayser Tipping Point Project Rivals Importance of Major Developments
While the celebration of billions of dollars in construction projects captures the headlines, the irony is that there are fine-grained, place-based projects that can in the long run...
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Making The Most Out Of A Mandate; Sales Tax Increase Uncertainty
In Thursday’s election, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland got what every mayor wants: not just a victory but a mandate. With his margin of victory, Mr. Strickland lapped former Mayor Willie W. Herenton who...
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A Different Kind Of PILOT: Voluntary Ones For Nonprofits
Memphis ranks high in the percentage of land that is not producing property taxes, and while the PILOT program is the easy one to blame, the proliferation of nonprofit organizations in...
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Are There Any Limits To EDGE Tax Breaks?
Every dollar unnecessarily given away for a tax freeze to a corporation or developer is a dollar that can’t be spent to educate children, to protect neighborhoods, to improve the...
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