Memphis property tax stays flat; public safety employees to see 14% base salary increase

Memphis residents can expect their property tax rate to stay flat next year, but there will be dramatic pay increases in base salaries for public safety employees.

The City Council’s votes approving the budgets for fiscal year 2024, which starts July 1, came not long after the Shelby County Commission moved toward passing a $25 wheel tax increase for all vehicles, but also left their property tax flat.

Here are the highlights of the City of Memphis’ $794 million operating budget and $96 million capital budget.

Property tax stays consistent

The Memphis City Council Tuesday decided to keep the property tax at $2.70 per $100 of assessed value, shutting down a discussion of raising the property tax for fiscal year 2024.

Council Chairman Martavius Jones proposed a property tax increase of 29 cents, which would have brought the city’s property tax rate to $2.99 per $100 of assessed value, with revenues going to the Memphis Area Transit Authority, the city’s solid waste fund and more.

However, in a Tuesday morning meeting, Councilman Chase Carlisle, budget chair, said he believed there was no need for a property tax increase. Instead, he proposed shuffling revenues from various sources, including federal COVID-19 dollars, to cover a range of efforts including youth programming and transit.

“I believe that we have met the commitments we wanted to as a council for this year without the need for a property tax increase,” Carlisle said as he proposed a status quo property tax, which the council later adopted.

Jones’ proposal ended up receiving little support, with only Jones and Councilman JB Smiley Jr. voting in favor and Councilwoman Cheyenne Johnson abstaining. The other 10 council members present voted against the increase.

Pay increases for fire, police; bonuses for others

Members of the Memphis Police Department and the Memphis Fire Department will, next year, become the highest-paid public safety employees in the area, according to Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s original budget proposal in April.

Then, Strickland proposed converting the funds intended for a 9% retention bonus to salary increases, resulting in a 14% base salary increase for fire and police employees.

Council members Tuesday also decided to allocate $2 million to one-time bonuses for all general, non-represented employees. It is unclear how much individual employees will receive as their bonus.

Funding for Memphis Area Transit Authority

In addition to the $29 million MATA normally receives, council members decided to add $3 million, pulling those funds from COVID-19 dollars and a fund for Mud Island. That additional $3 million falls far below MATA’s request of $15 million to maintain the status quo of its operations, which Carlisle said would “be a disappointment to several people, but ultimately we have to make difficult decisions.”

The city also allocated $5.7 million to MATA’s capital projects, including $5 million for an innovation corridor and $750,000 for the transit vision project. The innovation corridor will include the first bus rapid transit system in Memphis, while the transit vision project aims to offer new bus routes that help more low-income residents get to jobs.

Creation of a Memphis Crime Lab

Council members approved an allocation of $300,000 for a study to determine the feasibility of creating a Memphis Crime Lab, allocating $300,000 from federal COVID-19 dollars.

Several council members advocated passionately for the creation of a crime lab in Memphis that could process rape kits, which currently are sent to a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation office in Jackson, Tennessee.

Councilman Worth Morgan led the charge to obtain funding for a study, originally asking for $600,000, saying the move toward a crime lab should have occurred years ago.

“We have not returned as much justice to a number of our citizens as they deserved and this would hopefully be a step, if done right, in the right direction,” Morgan said.

Funding for housing

A one-time transfer of $5 million will be made from the unassigned fund balance to the affordable housing trust fund, a program that supports the repair of owner-occupied housing units and the rehabilitation of vacant single-family housing. The program aims to increase affordable housing, improve neighborhoods and build nonprofit developer capacity.

Carlisle said the city has put somewhere near $15 million toward affordable housing in the last 2.5 years.

New Levi Library branch, Lester Community Center

Funding was allocated to replace the Levi Branch Library to the tune of $750,000 in fiscal year 2024. According to the city’s five-year capital plan, the new library would receive a total of $10.5 million over the next five years.

In addition, $5 million was allocated to begin building a new Lester Community Center. In fiscal year 2025, that allocation is expected to rise to $7 million. The historic community center located on Tillman Street in Binghampton currently has an aquatics center, an outdoor pool, eight indoor basketball courts and more.

Council members also allocated $2.3 million to library services for youth programming, which could range from extended library hours to tutoring opportunities, and $2.2 million for youth programming and employment at Memphis Parks.

Councilmember Michalyn Easter-Thomas led the charge to include $100,000 for programmatic activities at the Greenlaw Community Center, which has newly returned to the parks division and is expected to hold community activities led by the Memphis Police Department.

More City Hall news: MPD update: Memphis Parks — not cops — to operate Greenlaw Center & a drag racing update

Police stations

In addition, $1 million was allocated to the Raines police station, with a planned allocation of $12 million over the next five fiscal years.

The Mount Moriah police station also received an allocation of $4 million, matching the current year’s allocation, and is expected to receive another allocation of $2 million in fiscal year 2025.

Katherine Burgess covers government and religion. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Memphis property tax stays flat; public safety employees to see base salary increase