“Behind The Headlines,” hosted by Eric Barnes, CEO of The Daily Memphian, airs on WKNO Fridays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 8:30 a.m. To watch the show now, go to the link at the top of this article. The podcast version of the show can be heard with the link at the bottom.

The city and county government budget seasons are in the last month ahead of the July 1 start of the new fiscal year for local governments, and there’s less certainty on what the budgets and tax rates will look like than when the seasons began.

Much of the uncertainty is around specific uses for the federal American Rescue Plan Act funding coming to the city and county — $160 million for the city of Memphis and $180 million for Shelby County.

County Commission considers bonuses instead of pay raises

Each government has received the first of two payments of ARPA funds with $90 million for the county and $80 million for the city.

But it will be mid-July at the earliest before federal officials set the final rules for how the money can be used — specifically, what revenue shortfalls during the pandemic can the money be used to offset.

The budget season is among the topics discussed on the WKNO Channel 10 program “Behind The Headlines.”

Removal of Forrest remains begins with confrontation and threats

The show features a roundtable of reporters, including Toby Sells of The Memphis Flyer and Omer Yusuf of The Daily Memphian, discussing the budget season as well as the removal of what’s left of the memorial in Health Sciences Park to Confederate general, slave trader and Ku Klux Klan grand wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest.

The federal rules for ARPA funds prompted the Memphis City Council to put off its final votes on city budgets and the property tax rate until the council’s June 15 meeting.

City budget vision still blurry as first federal funds arrive

That followed city Chief Financial Officer Shirley Ford warning the council that the city administration’s plan to use the funding to plug an $18 million hole in the $716 million operating budget might not work.

Another $5 million in state funding the city was counting on was cut by the Tennessee General Assembly before it adjourned for the year. 

The legislature cut its $10 million allocation to the city in half, believing the direct ARPA payment to the city would be enough.

County Commission Scorecard: Part of a penny and voting as Governor is signing

County Chief Financial Officer Mathilde Crosby warned commissioners earlier this week that the federal funding for the county is tentative and no final rules will be issued until mid-July.

Nevertheless, commissioners seem more likely to close out their budget season with votes at the Monday, June 7 session.

Commissioner Michael Whaley is among those who favor approving a budget and tax rates and later using the federal funding to replace county spending on items allowed by the final guidance.

Crosby said another approach being discussed among some local governments across the country is a blanket declaration that the ARPA funds will be used to pay for general services under the broad category of “health and public safety.”

Set it and Forget it: Tax Rate, Budgets and Nonprofits

The move would free up locally-generated general fund revenue for uses that don’t have to meet ARPA guidelines.

The city administration has talked generally about a similar move to devote the ARPA funding to police and fire services and effectively swap out the locally generated revenues that go to both divisions.

The two divisions account for the largest amounts of personnel and spending in the city’s operating budget of any divisions.