If you drive less than a mile from Southwind High School you can be in Germantown, Memphis, or unincorporated Shelby County (or Mississippi if you drive two miles). The tax rates where you end up vary from $4.06 to $7.22. Same stores, same roads, same public school, same water and sewer, same distance from downtown or the airport.
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.
