Council compromise
Budget reduces layoffs, restores 4.6% city pay cut
While $3.40 was the property tax rate needed to pay for the operating budget passed by the Memphis City Council on Tuesday night, council members voted the rate down and it was not immediately known what the rate will actually be.
The council passed its dayto-day budget Tuesday night after more than six hours of debate, and was still working on the capital improvement budget late into the night. It was expected to return to the tax rate issue after wrapping up the capital budget.
The council finally compromised on an operating budget proposal from council member Harold Collins. The compromise came to reduce the 100 layoffs proposed by Mayor A C Wharton and others to 50, restore 70 vacant police and fire positions originally cut in Collins’ budget, and to leave the city’s weights and measures department in the budget.
The compromise added 4 cents to Collins’ proposal and he pleaded with council members to pass the amendment.
“If you can go into a convenience store and buy a bottle of water or a Red Bull at $2.99 but you can’t invest in your city by 4 cents, then you ought to be ashamed of yourself,” Collins said. “Find it in your hearts to compromise.”
Collins’ budget cuts 2.5 percent from the Memphis Police Department, although MPD Director Toney Armstrong said he could manage the cuts without layoffs. The proposal also reduced the city’s total employee count by 300 through attrition and reducing health care costs.
The budget restores the 4.6 percent pay cut given to city employees two years ago and other benefits approved by council members in a series of impasse meetings last
month. The proposal also adds 9 cents for reserves and gives money for community centers, the library system, code enforcement and Memphis Area Transit Authority, and puts in funds to deal with more than $4.2 million in higher health care premiums expected this year.
Tuesday’s meeting was disorganized, with much time spent on off-topic tangents, asking clarifying questions of Wharton-administration officials, and several questions on correct meeting procedure for council attorney Allan Wade.
Council member Janis Fullilove was visibly frustrated and said she was confused with the proceedings after the first motion on the operating budget failed.
“Sometimes I cry like a baby and I ask my analyst, Sophia, to get me some tissues because this is the toughest thing I’ve ever had to do,” Fullilove said of making this year’s tough budget choices.
Other council members have admitted this budget season has been tough and disjointed, with budget chairman Jim Strickland saying it was the worst budget season he’s ever experienced.
Amid the budget issues on the table Tuesday, the council spent hours on a decision on whether to get rid of the city’s weights and measures department. The council originally voted to remove the department, then reinstated it and then tried later to cut it again, though that vote failed.
The department tests grocery store scales, gas pumps and other things. Memphis is the only city in Tennessee, Arkansas or Kentucky that has such a division, council members said.
The weights and measures department’s budget was $501,000 in Wharton’s proposed budget. The total operating budget proposals from the mayor and from other council members is around $622 million.
Although the council was still debating the capital improvement budget as midnight approached, members approved about $160 million to buy bigticket items paid for mainly with bonds, state and federal grants and fees.
The council cut $1 million for a renovation project at the National Civil Rights Museum. It also reduced the $3.5 million portion of its promise to build an overpass over Massey close to the International Paper campus to $1.7 million. The council would pull those funds if the county does not agree to match it.
Strickland moved to take the $1.8 million from the IP project, the $1 million from the museum and the remaining $1.7 million from the IP project if the county doesn’t match to pay for paving.
He agreed to earmark $800,000 of those funds to sidewalks close to Corning Achievement Elementary School.
The council also voted to approve $1.3 million for a project to refurbish the cobblestone landing and create a water taxi service for Beale Street Landing. The funds were originally cut from the budget but were brought back by Councilman Bill Morrison, who said the main driver for his vote was to not miss out on $6.3 million in state and federal funds for the project, which would also make nearby railroad crossings on Riverside Drive compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.