Author: Shea Flinn

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Opinion Viewpoint

Phil Trenary: Keep His Vision Alive

“We wake up every morning and decide what we are NOT going to do today.” Phil Trenary must have told me that a thousand times during my time at the Greater Memphis Chamber.  It was not a testament to laziness, but the perfect prescription for effectiveness at an organization like the Chamber, which Phil led as president and executive director from 2014 until his untimely death last week.  

Phil breathed new life into a heritage organization. It didn’t always get the publicity of a revived Overton Square or the rebirth of Crosstown or a remodeled brewery Downtown, but the changes Phil brought to the Chamber were just as extraordinary and just as important for the transformation of Memphis. 

Phil was pivotal to the growth of the Chairman’s Circle, creating an activist group of CEOs that would endeavor to work in the trenches toward the goal of pushing Memphis to live up to its potential. The first major move of the Chairman’s Circle included removing government funding from the Chamber, which allowed the business community to begin to partner with and advocate for our local governments, a role that had been distinctively absent for decades. 

Because of Phil’s leadership in bringing these advocates together, Memphis has seen increased funding for pre-K, collaboration on economic development, and a stronger Memphis presence in Nashville, working for our community’s priorities with the state legislature and governor. 

Phil made sure that the Chamber was focused on economic growth, not for economic growth’s sake, but because he wanted the best outcomes for the people in our community just as much as he wanted to attract new business. He knew that in order to see true growth, dealing with issues such as poverty, education, and creating higher-paying jobs was essential to move our city forward. What kind of business organization thinks like that? One led by Phil Trenary. 

Shortly after the I-40 bridge protest in the summer of 2016, the Chamber found itself picketed by the Coalition of Concerned Citizens. What did Phil do? He went outside and talked with them. As Phil put it, “They want what we want, and if the Coalition thinks they need to protest us, then that is our fault for not telling them what we are doing.”

The loss of Phil Trenary will be felt most acutely, of course, by his family. My heart, my prayers, and my love go out to all of them. But, make no mistake about what we are not going to do today — and for all the tomorrows to follow. We are not going to let the life of a man who loved our city become a cautionary tale of those who hate it. We are not going to allow a man who lived for bringing jobs and businesses to Memphis, to become, in death, a reason for them to stay away. And we will not allow a person who was so focused on the good in our community to become a shorthand for the tragedy that can also be found here. 

We are going to continue to believe in Memphis, the way Phil Trenary believed in Memphis. We are going to continue to see that all of us want the same thing for our community and it’s on us if we can’t work together to understand that.

Shea Flinn is the former senior vice president of the Chairman’s Circle of the Greater Memphis Chamber.

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Political Peace, Not War

This month’s election had bittersweet results for Tennessee’s Democrats. You were happy that President Obama was reelected and happy that the U.S. Senate remained under Democratic control, but in our home state, we were left to deal with a different kettle of fish.

On the plus side, the state Democratic caucus has its choice of phone booths and closets in which to hold meetings. The bad news is that there would be room left over for the brooms and cleaning supplies. Despite national triumphs for Democrats, in Tennessee, the Republicans are ascendant, enjoying a level of legislative and executive authority that would make a monarch blush.

The real good news is that state Democrats, for the first time in a long time, are free to lead. As Janis Joplin famously sang, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” Democrats are free from worries about holding onto majorities and leadership positions and free of worry about what redistricting will look like.

In many ways, we are free of decision-making of any kind. After all, the Democrats don’t even have to show up for the Republicans to conduct the state’s business. But in a world where nothing you do matters, the only thing that matters is what you choose to do, and just because we don’t have power doesn’t mean we don’t still have responsibility. This responsibility is far more than being the loyal opposition. We Democrats must do more than brandish partisan language and perpetuate the politics-as-team-sport analogy that is becoming a serious drag on our democracy.

The truth about our politics is that neither party has a monopoly on good ideas, patriotism, or decency. Yes, we live in a new world, where people retreat to their separate corners and use the internet and social media to build their own personal echo chamber, but every new world becomes old at some point.

Through our recent losses, Tennessee Democrats have won an opportunity to begin leading down the road away from the straw-men mythologies that we in both parties have built up around each other. If the 2012 election proved anything, it’s that the mass of people who don’t watch cable news channels and who don’t immediately memorize the talking points of the various parties wants our leaders to work together. Being in a super-minority presents the opportunity to constantly offer compromise.

Now, I realize that the true believers will see this as appeasement talk, that the blogosphere and the media want the never-ending battle to continue, but it doesn’t have to be that way, and that is not the path back to a more balanced legislature.

Democrats still have a valuable voice in the governance of our state, but it will be wholly wasted if we use it to shout at the Republicans. Honey catches more flies than vinegar. Internet hyperbole and cable talking heads do nothing to build a better Tennessee. Democrats are not going to win back seats by pointing out what Republicans do wrong and what we don’t like about them.

Instead, the path back to power is by getting things done, and the only way to get things done is by working with the Republicans. Yes, there will still be those times when we will not see eye to eye, when a confrontation must be had, but just maybe we can lead the way to a time when disagreements over ideas will not mean demonization of those with whom we have disagreed.

Governor Haslam currently enjoys widespread bipartisan support across the state. We should reach out to the governor and any other Republican we can work with to find the areas where we agree — on the budget, on education reform. Republicans on a national level are forced into doing some soul searching; Democrats in this state must do the same.  

No amount of money, no amount of organization, and no amount of internet chatter is going to change the balance if we aren’t working to improve the state. And that requires cooperation, not conflict. It won’t make for good headlines, it won’t fire up a particular base for an individual candidate, but it will leave an opening. The media thrives on conflict. The Republican majority is so big now that the only way it can pick on someone its own size is by fighting itself. Democrats have other things to do than to get in the way of that coming conflict.

Shea Flinn, a Democrat, is a member of the Memphis City Council.

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A Better Approach

On ballot referendum Number One: You, the citizen, are being asked to raise the county sales tax by one-half percent. Your first instinct is going to be something along the lines of “hell, no!”

I understand this reaction, but I ask you to look deeper into the issue and move past your first instinct. Made in a vacuum, everyone would choose no. But this decision isn’t happening in a vacuum, and you must consider what a yes vote means in regards to your quality of life as well as what a no vote means to your bottom line. 

It goes without saying that the Unified School Board must pursue reforms that eliminate waste or inefficient uses of our education dollars, but reform cannot and does not exist only on the cut side of the ledger.

The fact is that the proceeds generated by the sales tax on the county side would actually facilitate the stringent cost-efficient reforms recommended by the Transition Planning Commission while enabling the school board, for the first time, to offer universal pre-K to all children in our county, something badly needed.

From the city’s point of view, the split we receive from a countywide sales tax would also allow us to improve areas of core service and need in our community. Just as was the case when we were considering a municipal-only sales tax increase, your city government is committed to using these funds in three distinct ways.

The first is to improve our community centers and libraries. As Mayor Wharton has noted many times, education is more than schools and children, it is a lifelong pursuit. Through such improvements as these, Memphians will be able to continue to educate themselves.

Secondly, we will be better able to address the persistent problem of blight in our city. By accelerating our blight-abatement programs, not only do we raise the quality of life for so many of our citizens, we protect our tax rate and help eliminate future needs for property tax increases.

Finally, on the subject of property taxes, if the countywide sales tax initiative passes, we will be able to lower your property taxes, something that had also been envisioned under the previous city-only proposal. 

We have spent all summer being outraged that a plane ticket from Memphis costs twice what the same plane ticket from Nashville costs. This imbalance is also true of our property tax rate, which is twice that of Nashville and other peer cities. The damage to us from that imbalance continues to be immense. 

By approving the sales tax increase we will be bringing our sales tax rate in line with where the majority of counties in Tennessee already are — not twice as high, as is the case with our current level of property taxes, but, rather, just the same. 

It also must be said that if the sales tax proposal fails, the burden of paying the freight falls entirely on those of us who live or own property here. A sales tax would spread the burden, capturing revenue from all those who choose to work and play in Memphis and Shelby County but live outside the limits of our metropolitan area.

Allow me to ask a few questions that are critical in making this decision. If the sales tax fails, what do you think will happen next? Not what you want to happen next, but what you think will happen next? 

What if local legislative bodies — the city council and the county commission — have to institute substantial layoffs, which by necessity would include police and fire employees? 

Is that something you want? And, if this sales tax referendum fails, are you prepared for that already burdensome and uncompetitive property tax of ours to become even more when both county and city government are forced to approve an increase?

I hope you understand how the money from this relatively modest sales tax increase would be spent and get a sense, too, of how the alternative — increasing the property tax — would worsen an already competitive disadvantage.

It is my hope that you have moved beyond the instinctive “hell, no!” 

On November 6th, the answer is up to you.

Shea Flinn is a member of the Memphis City Council and the immediate past chairman of the budget committee.

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Budget Basics

“The Grizzlies are in the playoffs, and we’ve come together as a community to cheer on the home team. During the playoffs, we’ll evaluate the players, break down their stat lines, and hope that Zach Randolph scores a lot of touch downs and that Tony Allen pitches a no-hitter.”

If the second sentence seems a tad off to you, you might now have an understanding of what it is like listening to some of our community discussions about the city of Memphis’ budget.

Too often, we can’t have a focused discussion, because we don’t understand the rules of the game.

Rule 1: The city of Memphis has two budgets. The first is the General Operating budget, which funds the daily cost of running the city. That includes your fire employees, your police employees, and all other city employees. All are paid out of this budget. This is the budget that will have a direct impact on your property-tax rate.

The other budget is the Capital Improvement budget, aka the CIP. This is where the city issues long-term obligations in the form of bonds to fund higher-cost, long-term improvements to the city or capital improvements such as new police stations, sewer repairs, and vehicle fleet purchases. This is comparable to a home mortgage or car payment.

In the operating budget, $1 million means $1 million. Borrowing $1 million for projects in the CIP equates to an annual debt payment of $80,000, paid out of the operating budget.

Rule 2: Your tax rate hasn’t gone up. The frequent lament that politicians are always raising our taxes is simply not true. The fact is: Your tax rate was higher in 2007 than it is today.

While the council discussed a tax hike last year, it was never implemented. We are not “always raising” your taxes. But as every business owner knows, costs have gone up from 2007. The city must pay these increased costs, too.

Waste and inefficiency must be tackled head on, but as the cost of providing services rises, either this higher cost must be borne by spending more revenue or the service must end or be reduced. This means parks, libraries, community centers, golf courses, etc.

We can no longer pick and choose where to spend our scarce tax dollars based on our personal preferences or our pet projects and services. Sacrifice must be shared by all.

Rule 3: There are no sacred cows. By far the largest area of the budget is public safety. The operating budgets for our fire and police departments comprise more than 60 percent of the city’s entire operating budget. If we spent every penny of our property-tax revenues on police and fire alone, we still wouldn’t have enough money to cover those budgets.

It is important to note, however, that the compensation package for fire and police is lower in Memphis than in many cities of a similar size. Our citizens have the right to live in a safe city, but the cost of safety is something the public must be willing to pay for.

Rule 4: There are no fringe players. You often may hear politicians and members of the public demand that the city cut or eliminate a specific area of government, as if that cut alone would solve our budget shortfall. For example, I’ve heard the drumbeat to cut Mayor Wharton’s 400 appointees. Keep in mind that every librarian and city attorney is a mayoral appointee. It is a myth that the majority of those jobs are political-patronage jobs.

I’ve also heard demands that perks that cost taxpayers’ money should be eliminated from government; that expenses for food and travel are unnecessary. Truthfully, I agree and I have consistently voted to reduce these frivolous expenses.

But let’s not kid ourselves. When faced with a $47 million deficit — or even a $10 million deficit — these cuts wouldn’t come close to solving our budget problems. Cut them all, and you are still left with the real issue: How much in government services are taxpayers willing to pay for?

The citizens of Memphis are the highest-taxed people in a low-tax state. This clearly must change on a systemic level. But that also means we must have a real discussion about government priorities. We all can have different opinions about how to balance the city’s operating budget, but, to start that discussion, we all must be working with the same facts.

Shea Flinn is a member of the Memphis City Council and was last year’s budget chairman.

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Change That Cuts Deep

If you have a property tax rate of over $7 per $100,000 of property value, then you live in Memphis. The combined county and city tax rate for Memphians is $7.2157. Nashville’s is $4.1300, Chattanooga’s is $4.7042, and Knoxville’s is $4.8200.

The taxman takes a few more turns with the basic formula before assessing your actual tax payment, but the point here is that you pay more in Memphis than your counterparts elsewhere in Tennessee do for equivalent property. And it’s worse for owners of commercial property, who pay an even higher rate, percentage-wise.

We spend much more than competing municipalities, yet we have more schools failing, we have the highest crime rate in Tennessee, and people are leaving in droves. Businesses are closing. MLGW had fewer customers this year than the year before. Our media-market ranking has fallen from 47 to 49. We have consistently used annexation to cover a decline in population — simultaneously increasing the cost of our general services.

The word “change” was beat into the ground in 2008, but 2010 will certainly be the time for change in Memphis city government. Or else.

Robert Kennedy said, “Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator, and change has its enemies.” The City Council felt this firsthand two years ago, when we decided to cut the city’s contribution to Memphis City Schools from an amount totaling 10 percent of their operating budget to one of about 3 percent.

The funding issue currently is being litigated in the courts, and, whatever the outcome, our government still needs change, and change still has its enemies.

In 2009, when it came time to actually apply cuts in school funding, the political will was lacking. So our choice now is between raising taxes, as Mayor Wharton asked (and Mayor Herenton asked before him) or going back to find the necessary budget reductions.

It is not a happy task to cut money from schools or to put a stop on pay raises or to close libraries and golf courses. Such cuts, if they come, will be things that you, as a citizen, will notice.

This is unpleasant business, but it is necessary business. Just as you can’t field a Division I basketball team with players who are only 6 feet tall, we cannot stay competitive when the margin between our neighbors’ tax rate and ours continues to grow. This is not a philosophical argument of liberal versus conservative or Republican versus Democrat but an economic reality.

A person can be much chagrined at what a president is doing, but to actually move to some other country is a daunting undertaking. Moving out of Memphis or Shelby County is much more manageable, and people are managing to do it daily. Look at our tax rate again: We have tried to spend more money than our neighbors, and it hasn’t worked. Reduction is the only option left.

The current plan before the City Council would forgo a tax increase and spend $30 million from reserves, bringing us right to the line of our bond rating and requiring both Memphis City Schools and the city administration to make $10 million in cuts — from a $1 billion budget and a $600 million budget, respectively. But these cuts are just the appetizer before the meal. The next budget season will find us with several difficult decisions to make.

If the city is successful in its lawsuit with Memphis City Schools, then we will be faced with the question: Do we zero the schools out? And if so, do we use that money on new programs or take steps to get our tax rate closer to the range of our neighbors? Or do we continue to contribute to the schools (outside the requirements of Maintenance of Effort legislation) and make further cuts in city government accordingly?

On the other hand, should the appellate court rule in favor of Memphis City Schools, how deeply must we affect services? Every cut will have its enemies, every program its supporters. The final alternative is higher taxes, making our community even more of an outlier as a high-tax place in a low-tax state, which inevitably will push us past the breaking point. And then we will get change that is adverse to all of us — the continued migration of people from Shelby County, with those of us who stay supporting an even greater burden.

(Shea Flinn is a member of the Memphis City Council.)