Many questions about tax vote

The Shelby County Commission reversed itself and voted Monday to put a countywide sales-tax hike on the Nov. 6 ballot.

But was the timing of the decision really based on the need to ensure adequate funding for the new unified school system in Memphis and Shelby County? Or was it, as one observer put it, an escalation of the war that has developed among commissioners over the creation of municipal school districts?

Whatever the case, the decision to seek voters’ approval for a half-cent increase in the county sales tax mucks up plans for a Nov. 6 referendum in the city of Memphis that would have asked its residents to approve raising the sales tax inside the city by .5 percent. If it had been approved by Memphis voters, the additional tax could have raised an estimated $47 million annually to reduce Memphis’ property tax rate, fund public safety operations, improve infrastructure and fight blight.

If the referendum on a county tax hike is approved, it also would nullify the .5 percent local sales-tax increases voters in Arlington, Bartlett, Collierville, Germantown and Lakeland approved this month to help fund new municipal school districts.

Those ramifications are spelled out in state statutes that allow a county sales tax increase to supersede a municipal one, even those that have already been approved by municipal voters, and providing that voters in cities where the hikes were approved can’t vote in the county tax referendum in November.

The commission voted 7-5 to add the referendum to the ballot, despite the sentiments of county Mayor Mark Luttrell that the new unified school board should get a chance to shrink its projected $59 million deficit before taxes are increased. Last spring, the commission also rejected a proposal to call a sales-tax referendum.

Commissioner Mike Ritz now maintains that the timing is right for the referendum because the commission has a better picture of the new school system’s funding needs.

But considering the importance of the issue, it is disappointing that Ritz and the other six commissioners who voted for the referendum had not signaled in previous public discussions their intention to call for action on the tax increase proposal.

The lack of discussion also raises the question of whether Monday’s vote was another artillery shell fired by commissioners who have already filed a lawsuit challenging the state law that allowed the Aug. 2 votes to create school districts in Shelby County’s suburban municipalities.

Regardless, if the county tax increase is approved, the seven commissioners who voted for the referendum — and who all represent Memphis residents — may end up knocking those residents out of a chance for some property tax relief.