The public can thank the Greater Memphis Chamber and EDGE for $100M in annual revenue losses mounting up since 2021. Public revenue losses stem from staggering Shelby County employment losses since 2019.

The Chamber and EDGE collectively are involved in the excessive use of corporate tax abatements to incent competitive job growth and workforce development. Since 2019, City/County job tax abatement incentives have increased from an excessive $38M to a more excessive $44M. Yet, County employment since 2019 has fallen from 502,998 to 483,076 in 2024.

The $100M public revenue loss figure is based on a comparison of total wage growth vs the average of Shelby peers since 2021. Had Shelby County had just the average total wage growth of their peers since 2021, local annual revenues would be $100M greater.

The peers were not selected by this blog but selected by the Greater Memphis Chamber and include the counties hosting the cities of Birmingham, Indianapolis, Louisville, New Orleans, Kansas City, St. Louis, Oklahoma City, Nashville and Milwaukee. Below is a table summary of Chamber/EDGE job economic development outcomes:

As shown in the table above, the Chamber also launched several initiatives to include, in 2022, Prosper 2030. But since the launch of Prosper 2030 in 2022, more than 10,000 jobs have been lost in Shelby County.

The Chamber Prosper 2030 initiative promised to increase employment in high quality jobs by 50,000 by 2030, yet employment is down in Shelby County by more than 10,000 since the 2022 initiative launch. In fact, Prosper 2030 promised  20,000 more jobs by 2026, but again, Shelby County is down more than 10,000 jobs, since 2022, at the end of 2024.

The Chamber botch of Prosper 2030 is startling. Yet, there is more.

Following a fun time mission trip to Orlando Florida, the Chamber Chairman’s Circle announced at the Annual December 2023 Chamber Luncheon, the opening of an Accelerated Skills Center in early 2024.

The Accelerated Skills Center initiative promised rapid upskill training opportunity that ends in a competency-based hireable industry recognized credential with the end goal of 1,000 credentialed candidates annually. 

Fast forward to December 2025 and the Accelerated Skills Center never opened, with the 3230 Jackson location now available for lease. Since the Chamber Accelerated Skills Center announcement, Shelby County has lost 3,539 jobs.

Public solutions for revenue loss include PILOT reform and intense public data driven workforce development oversight that has not occurred. Local public leaders must also know that the Greater Memphis Chamber, along with their membership, has been in close proximity to just about every public botch in the City of Memphis to include MATA, the Riverfront, workforce development failure and the implosion of downtown.

Its much like the Chamber is involved in elitist public project development with public implosion and the same punk families and contractors benefitting in public project rebuilds. A good example of this is the Sheraton project to be led by Carlisle development.

All that to say, taxpayers are losing in this game and its showing up in over $100M in public revenue losses since 2021….

Check the Facts

$100M in public revenue losses are calculated by comparing what total wages would have been had Shelby County achieved the average growth of their peers since 2021. And calculating lost revenue by multiplying deficient total wage production by 3% (EDGE Calculations) to arrive a total public revenue losses

BLS QCEW - https://www.bls.gov/cew/

Prosper 2030 - https://dailymemphian.com/article/29459/beverly-robertson-to-step-down-at-greater-memphis-chamber?utm_source=site_search&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=site_search

Upskill Grant - https://dailymemphian.com/subscriber/article/39472/memphis-economy-could-benefit-from-federal-grant-for-upskill-job-training?utm_source=site_search&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=site_search

Accelerated Skills Center - https://dailymemphian.com/article/40489/memphis-one-stop-center-job-training-workforce-development?utm_source=site_search&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=site_search