Thursday, July 15, 2010
The Consolidation Conundrum
Posted by John Branston on Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 10:18 PM
This is what the would-be architects of consolidated metro government are up against. The numbers are really ugly, and there's no way to spin it before the vote on November 2nd.
The Metro Charter Commission met Thursday evening at Southwind for nearly four hours and listened to half a dozen people make comments and ask questions. The panel's patience and dedication are admirable, but their task is staggering. The plan they finalize in the next 30 days must pass separate referendums in the city of Memphis and the rest of Shelby County outside of Memphis.
To this city of Memphis resident and consolidation proponent, it looks like the strategy, such as it is, is to appease the county residents with assurances of separate school systems, a three-year tax freeze, and suburban sovereignty and city residents with a three-year tax freeze that looks awfully shaky if the city continues to lose population. Everyone will be pitched on efficiency and a Greater Unified Memphis. And I expect there will be some frank talk, if not bald threats, that if this thing doesn't pass then some important people and companies might be oughta here. And I for one will believe them.
I see two main problems with the comparisons the charter panel is making between Memphis and Nashville and Louisville and Indianapolis and Jacksonville.
One is that three of those cities consolidated decades ago and their demographics were and are different. Nashville doesn't have the big differentials in tax rates between its "urban services district" ($4.13) and its general services district ($3.56) that we have between Memphis and, say, Collierville or Germantown or Lakeland. Its tax rate has gone down in the last 40 years because the city is phenomenally prosperous, among other reasons that may include consolidation. Louisville consolidated within this decade, but its black-white demographics are almost a mirror image of Memphis. Highlighting that difference might be counterproductive to consolidation proponents.
And the fact that Nashville, Indianapolis, etc. have lower tax rates than Memphis and are therefore more attractive to families, mobile job seekers, and businesses begs the comparison between Memphis and its suburbs. Why would you want to live in the Richwood subdivision near Southwind High School, which was annexed by Memphis and pay $7.22, when you could live literally across the street from the high school and pay $4.06? Or in Germantown and pay $5.48?
Or, in the most outrageous inequity of all, in the plush Southwind gated community a mile north of the high school and pay no city taxes because your residents had enough political clout to talk their way out of a half-hearted annexation push in 2006 and forestall the day, supposedly, until 2013? So did Windyke. Under consolidation, annexation would require a yes vote from the majority of residents in the annexation target. I don't see that happening if Memphis comes courting.
What I fear, instead, is Memphis continuing to lose its tax base not just because Nashville has more appeal and lower taxes but because our own suburbs, incorporated or not, have more appeal, more stores, more work places, more solvable problems, more private and high-performing public schools, AND lower taxes.
I believe in Freakonomics but I don't see how this flies. The suburban mayors and their residents have been appeased so much that I am not even sure it is a good deal, strictly from a tax perspective, for Memphis residents although I buy the "one voice" argument.
To put it bluntly: Tax freeze? No thanks. I want a tax cut to go with my pay cut, and I want it soon.
Southwind High School is the issue in a nutshell. It is a county school that, by agreement with the Memphis school board a few years ago, is supposed to become a city school at some uncertain annexation date. With annexation off the table nobody knows what becomes of it and its 1600 or so students. The question did not come up Thursday, and certainly not the answer.
Comments (19)
Showing 1-19 of 19
John,
you just gave me a headache. Great research and analysis, but nonetheless headache indcucing.
Here is the problem I have with consolodation and it is simple. The more control politicians are given, the most fat they will place into the system.
We really need to cut local government jobs and budget 25% with the po po and firemen exempted. Our city schools blow and it isn't because of funding. If these kids want to be dumb, why spend money helping them? Let them be dumb for free.
Have you ever checked out the stems on Janice Broach? Wow! She could work for Fox!
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"We are going to raise your taxes, and nothing will change." Not exactly a world class sales pitch.
I'm a fan of Memphis, and I believe in the end consolidation is the way to go. However, I can't imagine a single county resident going for it. Why would they? Most people never really experience how the 2 governments impede recruitment of new businesses, or retention of established ones. If you live in the county and drive into the city you don't think "Wow, the residents of Memphis are really getting their moneys worth."
Having witnessed 1st hand the difficulties in dealing with Memphis/Shelby County, I can't imagine a major employer choosing Memphis over North MS.
Personally, I don't think the fire department should be exempt. Cut out some administrative fat, and don't tell me there isn't any to cut.
You can analyze the similarities or differences between Memphis and Shelby County all you want, but the fact remains Nashville keeps getting what we should be getting if we weren't being strangled economically by this two-headed monster we call city and county governments. I don't believe consolidation is the cure to all of our problems, but we need to turn the boat quickly before we hit an iceburg and sink. This gives us an opportunity to drastically change a broken system and elect new leaders.
I really think that the drive for consolidation is a hail mary for a lot of people. The cost argument is not a good one; the new consolidated government will have the same number of employess as the 2 previous governments because of the civil service protections they have built in. The only cost savings will come via eventual retirements. So the cost savings are undeterminable and will not come for years. Its not as if there are no successful cities which are not consolidated with the county. See, e.g., Atlanta. If we hit the reset button and none of the leadership or personnel changes, what are we starting over with? To argue that Nashville is as successful as it is now because of consolidation is just specious. As John points out, there are too many variables in Nashville's success to say consolidation is the one that mattered. The only arguments I take seriously are from the area CEOs and the Mayor when they talk about the difficulty the 2 government structure creates when trying to bring businesses to the community. It seems to me, though, that our lack of an educated workforce, and the lack of diversity and poor city infrastructure and amenities, is a much bigger hindrance to new business than is 2 governments. I'd rather focus on making the existing governments more efficient and improving our schools and the quality of life than about trying to sell consolidation based on entirely speculative arguments about future tax savings. In short, there is nothing that consolidation will fix that good actual leadership won't fix as well.
Carol - what possible evidence do you have to suggest that suddenly we will elect "new leaders"? It will be the same politicians that are running the show now. Consolidation will not make the voters smarter.
Someday we will consolidate and we should, but not the way it's being planned now. Under the current ReBuild built proposal, I'd still be paying more taxes than my friends in the county BUT be sharing the vote as to how to spend it equally with them.
What's more, they want the new metro council to be made up of a small bunch of super districts, effectively eliminating any chance that true grassroots community leaders could ever be elected.
Also, we the people of Memphis built MLGW. How is it fair to trade our stake in it for a share of Shelby County's debt.
I've got a monkey wrench sitting here on my desk and I intend to use it.
All: The panel wants to hear from you, really. Last three hearings are July 20 at Methodist South Hospital, July 21 at Collierville's Harrell Theater, and July 22 at the Ed Rice Community Center in Frayser. Bring a cushion; unlike city council, there is no 3-minute speaking limit.
As long as County residents feel entitled to City level services at rural level taxes, we will be hamstrung. My Urban Planning Profs in Grad School always said that services are best allotted by population density tempered by geographic realities without imaginary lines impeding their delivery. If you live out in the county, don't complain about how long it takes your ambulance to arrive. You should get what you pay for and the media needs to point that out, not pander to the woe is me attitude. Consolidate services that make sense and move on from there and quit whining about the lack of fire hydrants out in the rural areas!
What we need is a ten year study. I'm here to do it. I'll only charge $14 million dollars, so it's a steal, and when I'm done, Memphis will have an answer to every problem.
Cross my heart.
Call me!
WHOA.............. I thought we were just talking consolidation here. I didn't realize you guys wanted to fix Memphis.
Ah........... here's a thought................... stop electing democrats.
Jim Rout was a Rep and most of the Shelby County Commission were Reps when they ran this county's debt up to ridiculous levels because they wouldn't say no to Jackie Welch and his merry band of developers. Tommy, it took a Democratic AC Wharton to get the debt ship turned around in Shelby County. I'm not a Democrat, but what do you say to those historical facts, Tommy?
The Charter Commission members were given an impossible task. A C Wharton, Myron Lowery, Deidre Malone and others rushed the community into this process without doing sufficient review to determine whether merger of governments had any realistic chance of passage at this point. Consolidation has been advocated and looked at by a goodly number of politicians since the last public vote on a charter in 1971. But they all wisely concluded that it had no chance of passage and so did not make the public go through a process that was ill-fated from the start and would result in an exacerbation of differences in the community. Our current group of politicians simply did not have the insight and political depth to carefully examine the issue and its possibility of success before launching this effort. jcov
I don't believe that any of the suburbs around Memphis or the county itself have a chance of surviving or prospering as long as the city is failing. We really need to get it together if the Memphis area is ever going to achieve what it is capable of. If I lived in the county, I would want a say in what happens in the city, because it does effect everyone around here.
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