Shelby County Commissioners meet Monday, June 6, at 3 p.m. Follow @bdriesdm on Twitter for live coverage.

Shelby County commissioners could close out their budget season at the group’s Monday, June 6, meeting. And the commission is also expected to at least talk about, if not vote, on a long-stalled compromise plan for a new voting system in Shelby County.

Commissioners lined up several amendments to the $1.6 billion consolidated budget proposal presented by Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris during committee sessions last week.

At the commission’s May 23 session, the body approved an amendment to the proposed county tax rate of $3.399 to round it down to $3.39.

County property tax rate set, but budgeting goes on

The rate is an adjustment of the $3.45 rate set a year ago by the commission.

The Tennessee Comptroller’s office reset the county tax rate at $3.399 to adjust for an allowance for successful appeals of property values in the 2021 countywide reappraisal of property that was set too high.

The rounding down of 9/10ths of a penny by the commission is to allow the county Trustee’s office to print tax bills with outdated software that only allows for a dollar and cents amount on the tax bill.

Losing the 9/10ths of a penny costs the county $2.1 million in revenues for the fiscal year that begins July 1.

County Commission Scorecard: Round property tax rate up or down?

Harris has said his administration added the $2.1 million from county reserves in coming up with its budget proposal. Harris is not proposing a tax hike above the $3.399 rate and he has not taken a stand on the commission rounding the amount up or down.

If the commission approves the $3.39 rate on the last of three readings at Monday’s session, commissioners could propose a separate vote on what would be considered a tax hike rounding up to $3.40 or going beyond $3.40.

The budget amendments that surfaced in committee sessions last year included diverting education fund revenue to other education funding beyond the Memphis Shelby County School’s system.

County Commission has proposal to match city dedicated funding for MATA

Without those proposed diversions to an autism awareness program and the joint city-county pre-kindergarten fund, the county required “maintenance of effort” by state law to the county’s local school systems would increase by $1 million.

Other budget amendments on the table for Monday’s session are grants to different projects and programs that commissioners have proposed funding from cuts in other areas or the use of excess revenues.

Meanwhile, other countywide offices outside the administration are already estimating the money they will have left over from the current fiscal year.

The commission votes Monday on a total of $1.475 million in one-time stipends or bonuses for employees in the Chancery Court Clerk’s office, Trustee’s office, General Sessions Court Clerk’s office, Criminal Court Clerk’s office and the County Commission’s Legislative Operations Office and Equal Opportunity and Compliance Office.

All the funding comes from unused contingency funds or “underspent” personnel funds budgeted at the start of the current fiscal year or “excess” personnel funds.

New voting system compromise hinges on choice

The commission also returns Monday to the volatile topic of a new voting system for Shelby County, after a compromise proposed by commission Chairman Willie Brooks and former Shelby County Election Commission Chairman Brent Taylor resurfaced in committee last week.

The compromise, in limbo since last year, is a new generation of touch screen voting machines with a paper trail that prints a readout of a voter’s choices. The printout runs through a digital scanner and into a locked ballot box as an audit trail.

By the terms of the compromise, voters would have a choice of voting that way or using hand-marked paper ballots that are scanned by the same digital scanners and go into the same locked ballot box at a precinct.

Democrats urge County Commission to vote against new voting machines

The Election Commission’s lawsuit against the County Commission, seeking to settle the basic dispute of which body has the right to choose the voting system and which body has the obligation to fund the voting system, remains on appeal.

A Chancery Court ruling left in place the Election Commission’s claim that it selects the voting system and the County Commission’s claim that it can vote down funding for that choice if it disagrees.

The Election Commission is seeking an appeals court ruling that would go further in deciding a standoff neither body is willing to blink on so far.

Of eight commissioners present in committee sessions last week, five voted to recommend the compromise to the full body. The other three abstained.

Amber Mills cleared by Chancery Court for reelection run

The next day, several Democratic commissioners present and not present for the committee sessions underscored their opposition to the compromise at a press conference.

Commissioners also return Monday to the question of whether to temporarily fill the vacant state House District 91 seat in the Shelby County delegation to the Tennessee General Assembly ahead of the regular election on the August and November election ballots for the seat.

County Commission again delays filling state House seat

The commission delayed a decision at its last meeting in May after Memphis Democrats in the delegation said the seat should be filled even though the General Assembly is not expected to return to session until January.

The seat became vacant when Memphis Democrat London Lamar was appointed by the commission to fill the open state Senate District 33 seat vacated when Katrina Robinson was ousted by a Senate vote from that seat following her conviction on federal wire fraud charges.