Though overshadowed somewhat by the heavily ballyhooed chairmanship
vote pitting Democrat Deidre Malone against Republican Joyce Avery (see
Politics, p. 14), the Shelby County Commission had other fish to fry on
Monday and, all in all, it did well.

Though in both cases there was minority sentiment on the commission
against doing so, the majority voted both to approve a new county tax
rate and to go on record against permitting legalized weaponry in
public parks.

The new rate of $4.02, given final approval on its third reading,
was a compromise that struck a judicious middle between meeting all of
the county’s needs and leaving them dangerously unattended to.
Technically, the new rate is lower than the rate of $4.04, which it
replaced, though its opponents maintain it will represent a tax
increase for homeowners whose property was recently set at higher
levels. The outcome resulted from months of responsible debate and
genuine give-and-take.

Even more to our liking was the conscientious and direct way the
commission dealt with recent state legislation allowing holders of gun
permits to bring their weapons to public parks. The new state law
permits local government jurisdictions to opt out, and on behalf of
Shelby County, the commission did so (as did the Germantown Board of
Alderman, also on Monday).

Yet a third major issue was dealt with on Monday — that of
funding a county school budget that contained raises for teachers and
administrators. A minority of commissioners argued that the budget
discriminated against other county employees, who are going without
raises this fiscal year. But the majority saw it otherwise, and what we
liked about the final vote was that members of both parties came down
on either side of the issue.

Which is a way of saying that bipartisanship — and the
interests, we believe, of the taxpayers — triumphed on Monday in
more ways than in the chairmanship vote.

Voter Confidence Let’s be frank. We’re concerned about
arguments from Secretary of State Tre Hargett that state government
lacks the capacity to fulfill the legislature’s commitments to provide
opportunities for statewide use of optical-scan voting machines next
year.

Hargett’s critics maintain that readily available machines meeting
standards established in 2002 are all that the law requires, pointing
out that no language explicitly mandates machines meeting later
2005-model standards, though Hargett insists otherwise. The secretary’s
critics also maintain that the state has unused funds available to
purchase enough upgraded machines to go around.

Since Hargett is a Republican and his critics are Democrats, his
recalcitrance, whether justified or not, inflames partisan rivalries,
especially since the elections of 2010 in Tennessee will determine the
shape of redistricting for the next decade. Here’s hoping that, for the
sake of voter confidence, a mutually satisfactory solution can be
found.