Please meddle
I find it interesting that Shelby County Commissioner Sidney Chism, among others, returns to his familiar complaint that the legislature sticks its nose in our business where it’s not needed. However, it is crucial to the long-term health of this region.
In the last three years 42 cities, counties and utilities have filed for bankruptcy in more than a dozen states, mostly from a combination of mismanagement and unsustainable financial models.
Atlanta has seen many of its suburban communities incorporate into cities to distance themselves politically from urban Atlanta and its unfunded government pension liabilities and woeful schools. These new cities expect to form school districts soon, to free them even further from the issues in Atlanta. Sound familiar?
Memphis has an unfunded pension liability of $531 million, plus $1.34 billion in unfunded health care expenses for retired employees. Shelby County has $382 million in similar obligations. Combined, that’s $2.2 billion in government debt.
The Shelby County Commission has seen fit to sue suburban cities over public schools in an effort to keep urban control over school funding.
Facing severe financial realities, the bloated unified school board considers itself an employment agency instead of an educator of children.
Without the hope of separate school systems, the folks who pay the bills will leave Shelby County, happy to take a loss on the sale of a home to get away from the fiery rhetoric and alienation of our county politicians.
Many urban voices claim the efforts of the suburban cities to distance themselves from Memphis are racially motivated; that could not be further from the truth. The suburbs desire that the entire region be vital, prosperous and growing.
Nashville’s meddling in our affairs is its attempt to keep this end of the state from falling off a cliff.