Written by: Joe B Kent

Really, no one is going to say that Memphis should not publicly spend $1B on stadiums? Where is the outrage? Really, no outage from the social justice crowd in a majority black community in need? Forget social justice without foundational taxpayer justice; forget it! And no outrage from so called “fiscal conservatives”? Absurd!

Advocacy for absurd local public expenditures from Memphis Tomorrow / Chamber linked players and lacking opposition from poverty remediating social justice non-profits, provides a foundation for an explosively combustible property tax rate environment. The tab for the former, coupled with deficient public service delivery, is borne by all taxpayers in a majority black community in need.

The enormity of Memphis public spends, in context with basic public needs is astounding. The combined FedEx Forum and Liberty Bowl spend will approach $1B, when including interest. And there is no public outage! NONE. And keep in mind other communities are improving their stadiums and arenas.

The University of Alabama (UofA), that does not shy away from spending money on sports, just announced expansion and renovation plans for their 1968-built Coleman Coliseum. Coleman seats 15,383. The cost of the renovation and expansion is $59M. Forgone at the UofA was constructing a new facility, at a cost of $183M (AL.Com).

Absurd and indefensible is $550M, in public spend for the existing 2002-built FedEx Forum. The Forum seats 17,179. Defenders of the $550M spend will say, “Oh UofA Coleman is not required to meet NBA standards”. Ok, double the Coleman spend to reach NBA standards and arrive at $120M or better yet triple it and get $180M. Where in the hell is the justification for publicly spending $550M on FedEx Forum?

$550M could not have come by way of the Grizzlies economic impact. No one will attempt to do even a bogus Grizzlies economic impact study to justify the $550M public expenditure. Proponents of the massive $550M Forum spend just say the Grizzlies bring economic impact and an intangible value. “Intangible value”, whatever and I’m a Grizzlies fan!

A generous Grizzlies economic impact estimate from employment and game attendance proceeds, with economic multipliers to account for direct and indirect economic impact, would put Grizzlies annual economic impact at $165M annually translating into $5M in annual local tax proceeds. Over 20 yrs., the most recent FedEx Forum life, that’s $100M in tax proceeds from the Grizzlies. Or really, slightly less the cost of the above hypothesized Coleman NBA standards renovation at $120M (EICalc).

The State of Tennessee granted the City of Memphis $350M for stadium and arena upgrades. $350M is more than enough money to address local sports venue needs. $120M for Liberty Bowl stadium is more than enough money for what today is an already good college football stadium.

And $230M for FedEx Forum, 4x of Coleman, is off the charts enough money to renovate FedEx Forum and then some. And I’m not buying the $100M “philanthropic” drive for Liberty Bowl. But really $550M more for FedEx Forum + interest over time? C’mon man….

The Memphis City Council or County Commission for that matter, only schedule entities for public testimony that represent the corporate or social justice poverty remediation complex. Hence, an explosively combustible tax rate environment results, where basic taxpayer advocacy is disallowed, frowned upon and unrecognized in the public discourse.

The former occurs as fiscally liberal City Council Budget Chair Chase Carlisle wastes Councilors’ and the public’s time by not leading in the establishment of a solid budget deliberation foundation. Councilor Yolanda Cooper Sutton, new to the Council, has accurately complained about and observed increase, increase, increase relative to the explosively combustible public spending environment.

The City Council won’t schedule organizations like The Taxpayer Justice Institute or 21st Century Memphis or Bust (MLGW Watchdog). The Council will only schedule organizations that desire to go to re-election fish fries or brainwashed orgs that further narratives like Memphis would be Jackson, MS., if not for Blackjack Fred Smith. The former would mean Shelby County would have declined in population from 750K in 1973 to about 250K today and have filthy water. Talk about a narrative buster for a city!

Meanwhile, a major driver of higher local taxes is corporate elitist backed public spend initiatives while social justice poverty remediators look the other way. And it’s not just stadiums. Think $200M for the riverfront, $37M for tennis, $1B not renovation but Regional One entire REBUILD. Doesn’t everything now have to be rebuilt to be earthquake prone?

And there is more. $800M in corporate tax incentives, $16M EDGE Depot ripoff, $10M for the National Civil Right Museum (NCRM) expansion when the NCRM had $25M on their balance sheet, $100M in downtown parking for developer interests and $1B in stadiums. And just this City budget season, $20M in missing MATA money.

And still yet more with the pummeling of MLGW ratepayers with $228M in tree trimming, 2x on a per mile basis of Tennessee municipal peers, $27M Spectrum band purchase, as opposed to leasing, where ratepayers won’t breakeven for another 40 yrs and $18M customer service outsourcing contract when wait times are respectable.

For example, instead of overspending on FedEx Forum, proceeds from the hotel motel tax could be used as a dedicated public transit funding source, offsetting recurring local public expenditures by approximately $20M per year. That dedicated funding endorsement assumes taxpayers learn what is really going on at MATA before approving any dedicated funding source.

The lack of public oversight and the enormity of elitist driven public spending is why Memphis/Shelby property taxes are highly dislocated and going higher. And forget about community budgeting when the Young administration won’t answer budget centric public information requests. Also forget about social justice without foundational taxpayer justice.

Given the former, social justice advocates might as well listen to the new NCRM podcast and stand on the street corner screaming for reparations. Reparations in themselves are impractical, unaffordable, and especially inappropriate for consideration without foundational taxpayer justice.

And know, “helping black people” in Memphis can be shown to be the greatest municipal public scam in contemporary American History. In the end, social justice in Memphis will only occur first through a unifying platform, such as taxpayer justice. Such a platform is advanced by rigorous public oversight that delivers broad based taxpayer value, while indeed considering the needs of the poor, which are mostly black in the City of Memphis.

All the above as Memphis is set to spend approximately $1B on stadiums…..

AL.com. June 6, 2024. Details released for proposed Coleman Coliseum renovation, expansion

Click to See the Full Story

Epically. Grizzlies Economic Impact Estimate. [50 (games) x $100 (average fan spend) x 15,000 (fans)]+[50 (griz employees) x $150,000 (salary)] = $82,500,000 x 2 (economic multiplier)= $165,000,000 x 3% (realized annual local taxes) = $4,950,000 x 20 yrs. = $99,000,0