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Adding More Checks and Balances for Tax Breaks
In light of Shelby County Mayor’s reservations about the way this community, with its high poverty rate, continues to participate in a massive transfer of wealth from local taxpayers...
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Data Points: Amount of County Tax Breaks
Shelby County Tax Breaks By Year All of these amounts are from the Shelby County Trustee and only reflect the Shelby County taxes given up through tax breaks by nine agencies with...
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Shelby County: Leaving PILOTs To Cities
Lee Harris, in only 17 months, has shown an openness to new thinking on old issues, so here’s our modest suggestion for a new decade: Shelby County Government should get out of the PILOT...
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Fairgrounds’ Long, Strange Trip Drawing To A Close
It’s been a long, strange trip, but after 16 years, the future of the Fairgrounds has ended up at the same place twice. Now that the Strickland Administration’s proposal for...
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The Memphis And Shelby County We Need
Chalk up Memphis as the least surprised place in the country when the racial disparities for the Covid-19 were announced. After all, all of us were told that people with risk factors...
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The Answer To The Pandemic’s Declining Revenues: Leaving TVA
Thanks to The Commercial Appeal for publishing my op-ed on the financial opportunities for City of Memphis that results from leaving Tennessee Valley Authority. Here’s an unabridged...
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The Drivers Of The County Budget: Houses, Kids and Tax Breaks
Thumbnail: The Shelby County budget process is a good time to remember taxes are high because of math, not management; that our community’s large number of children drives budgets;...
View ArticleThe Myths That Won’t Die: Shelby County Wheel Tax
The myths about the Shelby County Wheel Tax refuse to die. In a column in the Tri-State Defender, Shelby County Commissioners Eddie S. Jones Jr. and Edmund Ford Jr. repeat one of the most durable ones:...
View ArticlePILOT Talking Points Crowd Out Facts; Shelby County Should Stop Tax Breaks
Thumbnail: Despite the regular talking points about PILOTs, City Hall – in a bubble surrounded by people who benefit from the tax breaks – has no way of knowing if the tax breaks are justified. If...
View ArticleProperty Assessments Barely Increase In Shelby County, Fall in Memphis
Thumbnail: To compound the revenue shortfall caused by Covid-19, Memphis also saw the assessed value of property fall by $23.6 million. Shelby County saw an extremely small increase – less than...
View ArticleWhen EDGE Subsidizes Pricey Apartments, Developers Win And Low-Wage Renters Lose
Today, I’m writing over at MLK50.com, whose founder and publisher is Wendi C. Thomas. I hope you’ll join me there. The article examines how $58 million in tax breaks from EDGE for seven Midtown and...
View ArticleAnalysis: Political Influence Gives Birth To Tax Subsidies For Apartment...
“Evidence from other cities is that apartments are about as important as ax-throwing bars in attracting millennials to move.” That paragraph is from my analysis today at MLK.50. I’m proud to...
View ArticleGambling That Apartments Are Magnets For Millennials
Thumbnail: Following up on my two articles at MLK50.com about tax breaks for apartment projects in Midtown and East Memphis, I’m reposting this article from May 22, 2017, about whether apartments...
View ArticleA Discussion At Cardell Orrin’s Soapbox
Upon the publication of my articles at MLK50.com about EDGE approving $58 million in tax breaks to apartment projects in Midtown and East Memphis that do nothing to ease Memphis’ affordable housing...
View ArticleEDGE’s Subsidies for Developers of Upper Income Apartments
EDGE Tax Subsidies For Apartment Developers: The following data are from MLK50.com articles about $58 million in tax breaks to six developers for building 1,300 apartments in Midtown and East Memphis....
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Too Many PILOTs, Too Little Wage Growth
Source of data: Joe Kent The chart says it all. Despite handing out about $800 million in tax breaks over 10 years, Shelby County lags all other urban counties in Tennessee in employee growth and...
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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’...
View ArticleNeeded: PILOT Programs With Accountability And Better Economic Results
My op-ed published in The Commercial Appeal February 2, 2021: There’s little in our over reliance on PILOTs, Payment in lieu of taxes, in the past 20 years that suggests they are creating a stronger,...
View ArticleBeale Street Landing: Paying For Itself And Then Some
Thumbnail: Beale Street Landing, when the river cruise industry is not hobbled by COVID-19, produces $4.5 million in revenues to local government, which is far more than the $2.25 million it takes to...
View ArticleAll PILOT-Granting Agencies Should Emulate EDGE’s Transparency
Thumbnail: There’s no argument that EDGE’s PILOT program deserves serious evaluation by Memphis City Council and Shelby County Board of Commissioners. There’s also no argument that EDGE is the only...
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