Shelby County commissioners approved a 1-cent property tax hike Monday, June 7, in a 7½ hour meeting that stopped just short of closing out the county’s budget season.

The $3.46 property tax rate is a penny above the state-certified $3.45 county tax rate that was lowered from $4.05 after a countywide reappraisal. 

The rate is recertified by state law to produce the same amount of revenue for the county taking into account the increase in property values from this year’s reappraisal for taxation purposes.

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Also by state law, there is one more vote necessary to make the tax hike final after written notice of the tax hike is given to the public as well as the Board of Equalization.

Meanwhile, the commission also approved Monday night a move from the four-year reappraisal cycle currently used to a reappraisal every other year.

The 8-5 party line vote means the county tax rate would be reset every two years instead of every four years. The commission had delayed three previous votes on the proposal by Assessor Melvin Burgess Jr.

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Voting for the move to every other year reappraisals were the eight Democratic commissioners: Willie Brooks, Edmund Ford Jr., chairman Eddie Jones, Mickell Lowery, Reginald Milton, Tami Sawyer, Van Turner and Michael Whaley.

Voting no were all five Republican commissioners: Mark Billingsley, David Bradford, Amber Mills, Brandon Morrison and Mick Wright.

The state Board of Equalization and the state comptroller must give their approval for the move to two-year reappraisals starting in 2023.

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Shelby County would become the first county in the state to use a two-year cycle if that happens.

Commissioner Van Turner said the combination of the tax hike and the more frequent reappraisals are steps toward fixing a “structural imbalance” in county revenues that has forced it in recent years to dip into its reserve fund or “fund balance.”

Budget director Michael Thompson put the imbalance for the new fiscal year starting July 1 at $23 million, with the imbalance being made up with federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.

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“I think this two-year reappraisal will be a capstone of what we are attempting to do,” he said after the last of several crucial votes had been taken. “This will be an added benefit to our revenues going forward.”

The commission also amended the $1.4 billion consolidated county operating budget to including $1.3 million in recurring funding for the Memphis Area Transit Authority.

The funding is considered a start toward the bus system’s near dormant 5-year-old, $35 million “transit vision” plan to overhaul the service starting with on-demand trial projects in several neighborhoods.

Lowery proposed the 1-cent property tax hike above $3.45 to specifically fund mental health services. It came after a $3.69 tax rate failed with only four yes votes – Turner, Sawyer, Whaley and Milton.

The later 1-cent tax hike initially appeared to fail on an announced 6-4-2 vote, with Milton not present for the vote.

Morrison, who was acting chairwoman, ruled that the measure failed by one vote. Milton then emerged from the back room of commission chambers to announce he wanted to vote yes.

That set off a parliamentary scramble and reading of commission rules of procedure.

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The rule in play says a commissioner who misses a vote cannot vote after the outcome is announced by the chair if it will change the outcome.

The commission then voted to suspend its rules to allow Milton’s vote to count.

The suspension of the rules appeared to fail on an 8-3-2 vote until a more careful reading of a different part of the rules showed the motion required a two-thirds vote of those present and voting.

Because Ford and Wright abstained, they were not considered present and voting by the rules. That dropped the two-thirds requirement from nine votes to eight and the suspension of the rules passed.

The suspension thus allowed Milton’s vote, giving the penny tax hike the seven votes necessary to pass.

The seven yes votes in addition to Milton were Brooks, Jones, Lowery, Sawyer, Turner and Whaley.

The no votes were Billingsley, Wright, Mills and Bradford.

Ford and Morrison abstained.

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Morrison proposed the MATA funding with money from cutting the commission’s $2.6 million community grant program in half to $1.3 million.

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris pledged to restore the grant funding either with ARPA funding or through other dollar amounts in the county budget.

The grants are allocated for use at $200,000 per commissioner.

With the pledge, Morrison’s amendment was approved on a 7-4-2 vote, with Ford and Jones abstaining and the other four Republican commissioners voting against it.

Morrison directed much of her appeal before the vote at her Republican colleagues.

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“I do feel like I have heard my Democrat colleagues speak in favor of MATA a number of times. It’s my Republican colleagues that I am making this appeal to,” she said. “I think we need to grasp the vision of a regional transit system. It’s not just Memphis. We can think broader but you have to start somewhere.”

The commission could take the final vote on the property tax rate hike at its June 21 meeting.