
Developers could skirt local taxes by making an agreement directly with the state under a new proposal in the Tennessee Senate.
The bill would establish a new state board that could supersede local control in cities where combined taxes on developers are above a certain rate — a threshold that only applies to Memphis-Shelby County.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Brent Taylor, R-Memphis, said he wants to see more cranes in the Memphis skyline.
“We don’t have the commercial development going on in Memphis that we need,” Taylor said.
The board would be made up of eight members appointed by the governor, the house speaker and the senate speaker — positions all held by Republicans. In the fall, House Speaker Cameron Sexton and Senate Speaker Randy McNally threatened to withhold tax revenue from Memphis over a ceremonial referendum on its ballot, gauging voters’ support for gun reform.
Sen. Sara Kyle, D-Memphis, said she’s heard from local leaders who oppose the bill.
“This would be a state board (taking) control away from the city and county,” Kyle said. “They would be unelected people serving on that board that may not even be from our county.”
The bill ultimately advanced out of a Senate subcommittee Wednesday, following another statehouse bill that would curb local control in Memphis. That measure, which would allow state appointees to run Shelby County Schools, passed its first hurdle in the House K-12 Education Committee Tuesday.