Say what you will of Willie Herenton's leadership style in the past -- and he's gotten more than a little criticism in these pages -- the mayor deserves high praise for seizing the initiative in the ongoing annexation/incorporation debate in Shelby County.
The "toy towns" controversy, brought to our doorstep by legislative stealth and gubernatorial indifference, threatens Memphis far more directly than it does any other municipality in the state. Fully consolidated Nashville/Davidson County could care less, while the socio-economic demographics of other Tennessee cities lessen the impact of a freeze upon urban annexation in those areas. Let's not kid ourselves; Memphis was the real target of John Wilder's legislative archery, and the wily lieutenant governor hit the bull's-eye.
In such circumstances, a Memphis mayor could be forgiven for simply throwing up his hands, and cursing the darkness all around. Mayor Herenton has done nothing of the sort. In a brilliant counterstroke, he put a comprehensive, well-reasoned proposal before the county commission Monday, offering his vision of how the city of Memphis should deal with the new political realities of Shelby County.
In creative and constructive fashion, the mayor delivered an eloquent message to the toy-town lobby: Have your "independence" if you will, folks, but don't ask us to pay for it. After all, we've already built the infrastructure of public services out to the boundaries of your soon-to-be-independent municipalities. The time has now come for you, Mr. or Mrs. Toy-Towner, to pick up the lion's share of the costs of extending those services farther.
Moreover, Herenton's aptly named "Formula for Fairness" provides relief to suburbanites on two of their frequently expressed concerns: He would freeze the current school district boundaries for the city and county systems, and he volunteers a five-year moratorium on new annexations by Memphis.
Despite allegations to the contrary, the mayor did not rant and rave; he did not put forward a tax-equalization plan designed to "punish" toy-town advocates. He simply spoke the truth, and argued for a fair and equitable solution to the problem.
How equitable? For the average citizen owning a $200,000 home in now-unincorporated Shelby County, the tax burden would increase only $425 a year. That price tag doesn't seem exorbitant, given how important civic independence seems to so many suburbanites. If toy-town advocates aren't prepared to make that kind of investment in their own future, we see no reason why Memphis should.
Perhaps the mayor's two-week deadline for action does, as Shelby County Mayor Jim Rout suggests, seem a mite peremptory, given the myriad details involved in any tax reorganization scheme. But, as Herenton pointed out (and Rout left unsaid), the new incorporation law and the judicial decisions that have left that law standing have put both city and county under the gun. Mayor Herenton deserves full and unreserved credit for getting everyone's immediate and undivided attention.