Vote on wheel-tax hike delayed at County Commission
County commissioners Brandon Morrison, left, Michael Whaley and Shante Avant talk during a break in the Monday, May 15, commission meeting. (Bill Dries/The Daily Memphian)
A proposal to increase the county wheel tax by $50 did not appear to have the nine votes necessary to pass the first of two critical votes Monday, May 15, before the Shelby County Commission.
The commission instead voted 9-4 to send the item back to committee after several commissioners said Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris needs to consider alternatives to the tax hike.
The revenue from the increase — an estimated $34 million in new revenue — would finance the county’s $350 million in funding for a rebuild of the Regional One Health campus as well as two new high schools in Memphis.
The three capital projects are a major shift in county government priorities, and an expansion of the county’s capital budget from $75 million a year to $150 million a year with debt payments over the next 20 years to pay down the county’s debt.
“In my opinion, we need to hear from the (bond) rating agencies before we vote on such a proposal,” Commissioner Brandon Morrison said of the debt. “We must find a way to fund it.”
Other commissioners cited the impact of the fee increase on the city’s poor.
“There are folks who are more likely to live out of a car in my district than to live in a house they have purchased,” commissioner Britney Thornton said. “For some folks that could be a breaking point. The wheel tax – it cannot be the end all and be all.”
“We are willing to talk to you and anybody on this commission about ideas you may have for us to address this critical need for infrastructure,” county chief administrative officer Harold Collins told her.
“We have to make tough decisions,” he said. “If we could find another source to give us $350 million to rebuild Regional One, rest assured this mayor and this administration would have done so.”
Collins also reminded the commission of its unanimous vote earlier this spring authorizing Harris to come up with a way to finance the big capital projects.
At that time, Harris dropped numerous hints that the financing would likely be some kind of increase in the wheel tax.
Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. said there was no reason to delay the vote and that voting it down would hasten work on alternatives to it to fund the three capital projects.
He also took note of Regional One leaders and employees in the audience.
“If some people decide they want to go to the media and make us look like villains, shame on them in advance if they do that,” he said. “My vote tonight will not be a slap to Regional One.”
Voting yes were: Shante Avant, David Bradford, Henri Brooks, Charlie Caswell, Miska Clay-Bibbs, chairman Mickell Lowery, Morrison, Michael Whaley and Mick Wright.
Voting no were: Ford, Amber Mills, Erika Sugarmon and Thornton.
Avant called for the delay citing “the urgency of this moment.”
“What is the harm in us sending it back to committee,” she said. “This will impact all of Shelby County. … I think it’s stupid to be pressured.”
Sugarmon said she favored the new schools and a rebuild of the county-owned public hospital but not a wheel tax increase to pay for it.
“It’s taking from the poor and giving to the rich,” she said. “I urge that we look at alternative funding mechanisms that are more equitable and just.”
The increase in the wheel tax must pass on two votes at consecutive regularly scheduled commission meetings with a nine-vote two-thirds majority.
In other budget action Monday, the commission approved on the second of three votes keeping the county property tax rate at $3.99.
Harris has proposed a $3.98 rate — a one-cent tax reduction he has said is politically necessary to get the nine-vote majority for the wheel tax hike.
Harris has said he considered a property-tax hike as an option for funding the new capital projects, but rejected it because he said he feels the property tax rate is already too high.
Commissioners approved a series of amendments to the proposed county operating budget Monday that get more review by the body in May 31 committee sessions before final budget votes set for the June 5 commission session.
The new fiscal year begins July 1.
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wheel tax Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris Shelby County CommissionBill Dries on demand
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Bill Dries
Bill Dries covers city and county government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for almost 50 years covering a wide variety of stories from the 1977 death of Elvis Presley and the 1978 police and fire strikes to numerous political campaigns, every county mayor and every Memphis Mayor starting with Wyeth Chandler.
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