Commissioner Edmund Ford pulls out a win for all with funding for Junior Achievement(JA) apparently with the help of the Shelby County Administration in Mayor Lee Harris and Dr. Cedrick Gray. JA provides a research based approach to relevantly help educators connect students with their career futures through classroom curriculum and volunteers from the public and private sector.

Earlier in 2017, Ford, while in City Council, was scratching his head wondering about the challenge of unfilled jobs. Apparently, not knowing the workforce development system had been botched from the top of the ecosystem, Ford launched an inquiry, which for some reason was obstructed from completion by probably the bully hacks who have already cost taxpayers millions and local business perhaps billions. Its not like Ford once he sets out to do something to suddenly stop unless its the insurmountable and typical obstruction of Memphis progress in the bully hacks. But Ford persisted which is a win for us all.

This is significant, as recent local efforts to connect workforce development efforts lacked a research base or curricular approach to workforce readiness efforts in the K-12 space. The national landscape is dotted, with failed business-education partnership initiatives, due in large part, to the lack of formal entry point for employer engagement into daily instructional practice. Ford, Harris and Gray saw this entry point gap and worked to fill it with a research based curriculum scope and sequence that accommodates employer engagement while addressing entrepreneurship, economics, financial literacy and work readiness. [This is also significant because it demonstrates what should have already happened on the economic development front where real progress has not materialized under the bully hacks. County Commissioners were all warned about this probability.]

All of the above are desperately needed locally with entrepreneurial education filling a needed gap to address small business creation and economics education away from Memphis corporate socialism. Fred Smith and Pitt Hyde perhaps need to go through the JA economics module. That might help us all out.

As with any curricular program, there are gaps that could perhaps be filled in JA’s workforce readiness programming as it pertains to common language development and career planning. But more on that later as we examine the exciting results of the JA program.

Junior Achievement (JA) Results

Volunteerism – JA research support materials provide a value proposition for individuals to volunteer in support of JA programming. The results include:

• 68% of JA volunteers have previously worked with JA, 85% of first timers want to volunteer again and a 99% of JA volunteers would recommend JA to colleagues or friends.
• Improved employee recruitment and retention – especially among Millennials
• Increase volunteers’ perception of their own company and the company’s leadership team
• Help employees feel healthier in terms of lowered job stress, increased sense of purpose, and a sense of life enrichment
• Increase employee engagement as measured by workplace satisfaction and corporate loyalty

Student Outcomes: JA research includes a scientifically valid sample of more than 700 JA Alumni out of 100 million who have been through JA programming since its 1919 founding. The results include:

• 93% of JA Alumni have a high school equivalency recognition, 42% have a four year post-secondary degree and 20% have an advanced degree compared respectively with the general population of 88%, 32% and 12%.
• 62% of JA Alumni are working in management status or above positions, 33% credit JA with influencing their career choice and 20% work in the same field as their JA volunteer instructor while 88% of JA Alumni report being satisfied with their career choice compared with 49% of the general population according to the Conference Board.
• 90% of JA Alumni are confident in their ability to manage money while JA Alumni paid off student loans in 10 years compared with 21 years for college graduates.
• 34% of JA Alumni are involved in business ownership compared with 14% of Americans.
• JA Alumni make 20% more in household income than the general population

Unfortunately, this powerful JA programming will only be available to 11,000 students in Shelby County. In order to connect the workforce development system, relevant career readiness and employer demanded programming is needed throughout the local educational system as supported with common language and career planning for all students.

Implementation and Connected Workforce Development Programming

As with any program such as JA,  implementation will be key to connecting students with career pathways and the workforce development system. For whatever reason and without course correction from the top of the ecosystem, implementation suffers in Memphis across the board. But in regards to occupational skill readiness programming, ACT WorkKeys, after a major local announcement, was never widely implemented in conjunction with common language development and career planning.

While it is unclear in the provided JA scope and sequence, it would seem that somehow regular interest and work preference profiles could be annually administered in middle and high schools to inform student high school / career decision making and planning within the JA and/or the standards aligned academic curriculum. This is important as students’ interests routinely change.

Further, common language needs developed to connect the workforce development system which can occur through the publication of data and the administration of occupationally aligned skills assessments such as ACT WorkKeys. Educators generally as well as JA educators and volunteers need to know discrete knowledge and skills demanded by the overall workplace and specific career clusters to inform employer demanded  instruction.

In addition to the JA curriculum, employer demand data helps with common language development between educators and employers. ACT WorkKeys helps communicate individual and regional career readiness levels using common language to employers and prospective companies for economic development recruitment purposes. And a centralized job board that everyone is already using, such as Indeed, would help effectively measure and promote current job openings.

To that extent, below is a employer skill and knowledge demand data based on projected openings per Jobs4TN in the Greater Memphis Area for 2026 using the world leading O*NET database for all jobs. The below data is also cross referenced with wage data to inform a return on investment deployment of career pathways within the context of JA and career readiness programming.  The same data can be provided based on any of the 16 career clusters. And there is more data as it relates to career pathways supply and demand.

Conclusion

Ford’s leadership and Shelby County Administration’s support for JA programming is a significant step forward in connecting the workforce development system. Implementation will be key while a connected workforce development system supported by common language, regular interest assessments and career planning are needed for all students to fuel talent retention and development for economic development purposes.

At the same time, if there is to be a vibrant small business economy in Memphis, policy reform needs to occur away from corporate socialism that will accommodate JA grads success in the local economy. And while the bully hacks may not want to educate resident population so that they can continue to feed on the taxpayer unchecked, without policy and bully hack culture reform, JA grads will leave to thrive elsewhere…..

The retention PILOT program is one way Memphis competes against itself in the work of economic development. Two of the greatest enablers of the retention PILOT program are the bogus EDGE accounting platform that justify excessive abatements using greatly exaggerated projected tax revenues and the cross border threats of North Mississippi and Eastern Arkansas.

As other communities are investing in community betterment to compete in a global economy, the bully hacks have led a disinvestment campaign that transfers wealth from a community in need to corporations that serve global audiences. Its anti-business and anti-community while undermining the societal foundation on which commerce thrives.

The most notable tactic used for retention PILOT justification is the cross border threat of Northern Mississippi. Anyone knows that if a company relocates to Northern Mississippi, the entire local tax base does not depart with the company as EDGE has assumed for 8 years in their bogus projection modeling. The tax loss is far less than the loss would be if a company relocates hundreds of miles away.

Modeling the Cross Border Threat

At the first of the year, thru collaboratively competitive analysis, the Beacon Center and this blog arrived at a $100M taxpayer loss in analyzing the retention PILOT program in general while using different modeling methodologies. If the same 20 PILOTs used in the analysis before assume North Mississippi competition, the taxpayer losses double. This is primarily because indirect jobs will be impacted very little and local sales and property tax revenues would not be anywhere close to being entirely eliminated with many employees choosing to remain living in Memphis.

In this case, using modeling, if we generously assume a 50% company retention rate with the benefit of a PILOT for new jobs only which avoids burdensome relocation costs, 10% negative impact on indirect jobs, 40% impact to sales and residential taxes and 10% for hotel/motel taxes, direct taxpayer losses climb from $100M to $238M with EDGE revenue overstatements at over $730M. And the cross border threat for sure eliminates the need for economic multipliers while this being only a partial analysis of 20 of 90 PILOTs.

While no one knows the real impact, everyone knows that when a company relocates to Northern Mississippi the entire tax base is not anywhere close to being entirely lost as EDGE projection accounting assumes.

With this in mind, the following spreadsheet was developed to provide a quantitative context to the discussion around the cross border threat while accommodating variable modeling for public use. See spreadsheet here and please advise if you have questions, see potential mistakes or have suggestions for improving the modeling by emailing me at jkent@pathtrek.net

With all of the local needs, its really hard to square a full $3M for a University of Memphis (UofM) Tennis Center in a nice part of town. This comes after a new UofM FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow Board of Trustees took over the Board responsibility from the State Board of Regents, while promising community advocacy in research based economic development measurement and investigative journalism.

Neither promise has been upheld by the UofM with the abandonment of their peer city research platform on economic development measurement with The Memphis Economy Project and no investigative journalism stories have materialized that question local power centers.

Tennis Center – A Real Priority Even for the U of M ???

At the same time, the State funded UofM, has made a number of requests of the local taxpayer which have mostly been granted under the new corporate elite UofM Board of Trustees. But this new tennis center does not appear in the UofM Master Plan nor does discussion appear as of late by the UofM Board of Trustees based on an examination of their minutes. As $3M comes available, its seems it may have been on a private wish list of Board member Brad Martin, a known tennis fan.

What’s interesting about the $3M tennis center request, that comes within a crowded field of well documented community needs and unfunded plans, is that the UofM Board of Trustees has not discussed the tennis center since December of 2017. Couldn’t be that vital as UofM Board minutes only show the mere mention of a tennis center in October and December of 2017.

Confusing is  the October 2017 minutes that show an associated cost of a tennis center under a “future project” category as $3M (pdf pg 62).  Now the cost has sprung to some $19M per the Daily Memphian. What’s up with that ??? And once local funding is appropriated, how are promised private contribution amounts to projects publicly monitored, if at all ???

With a non-investigative press and doormat legislative bodies, nobody ever questions these hacks which is why the community is so out of economic balance. This reality is not good for local business or economic growth. At any rate, here is a listing of local taxpayer funded project requests under the new UofM FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow Board of Trustees for the State funded University of Memphis:

– The Highland TIF – $21M (Awarded)

– Pool Renovation Project – $1M (Awarded)

– 2 residential PILOTs that that did not meet minimum EDGE requirements – $1.2M (Awarded)

– A new tennis center – $3M (Requested)

Grand Total: $26M

Conclusion

While some degree of increased local funding for a state funded institution might follow a transition from a state to a local board, C’mon Man ! The above is excessive. The above would be excessive regardless of any circumstance but especially after the UofM bailed on their local community advocacy promises.

As a UofM grad and avid supporter of the UofM, this conclusion comes after MRYE advocated for UofM community policy pronouncements only to see the UofM in legislative chambers when they were pursuing local taxpayer subsidies. This leaves the Memphis community without a public university voice on matters of increased balance in economic development matters under the backwards UofM FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow Board of Trustees.

While feeling overly generous, the City Council should feed the FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow UofM Board of Trustees taxpayer pigs with no more than $1M and tell them to get lost…..

A RESOLUTION BY MEMPHIS RAISE YOUR EXPECTATIONS (MRYE) TO FORMALLY RECOGNIZE THE SHELBY COUNTY COMMISSION FOR THEIR LEADERSHIP STAND IN SUPPORT OF JUNIOR ACHIEVEMENT

WHEREAS, in the local economic development environment, small businesses are needed to fuel economic growth; and

WHEREAS, entrepreneurial education helps to increase career awareness, work readiness and small business development; and

WHEREAS, financial literacy is needed to succeed in business, in life and in local advocacy efforts to check excessive corporate/real estate incentives; and

WHEREAS, Junior Achievement provides relevant programming to support entrepreneurial, work readiness and financial literacy; and

WHEREAS, The Shelby County Commission acted to recognize this community need with $450,000 in funding to support Junior Achievement

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that MRYE formally recognizes The Shelby County Commission for their outstanding leadership to fill gaps in local education and workforce development programming with their funding support for Junior Achievement.

Local elected officials often use sound bites to preserve the backwards Memphis economic development complex of the 1940s. These sound bites, without quantitative context, while true in isolation, don’t tell the complete story.

In City Council on Tuesday, Councilman Berlin Boyd said that the public doesn’t understand PILOTs and that the Council should be careful in their discussions on PILOTs while stating that most PILOTs provide a net financial benefit to taxpayers. And Commissioner Brandon Morrison, on Wednesday in Commission Committee said, that Memphis has the highest property tax rate in the State which might dissuade business investment. Both above statements are true but without needed quantitative context these sound bites result in an incomplete story from which taxpayers can make informed evaluations.

Further, Councilman Martavius Jones, in City Council raised concerns about relatively flat tax revenue growth and depreciation on personal property assets that receive the benefit of tax incentives. Jones thought it would be helpful to have the County Trustee appear before the Council Economic Development Committee. This may help some but not much as the Trustee effectively bills and collects the reduced tax payment as part of the payment in lieu of [full] taxes (PILOT) while publishing an annual report.

And finally, it would seem that a check on excessive PILOTs would most appropriately occur in Jones’ Budget Committee to take up PILOT reform and future restraint on budget busting excessive PILOTs.

Analysis – More Complete Story PILOTs

The question that should arise with relatively flat local tax revenues in times of economic expansion is:

“Are Memphis/Shelby taxpayers paying excessively for economic growth through tax abatements?”

And the answer is absolutely in $200-$400M in excess depending on how local PILOTs are benchmarked!  The most egregious form of this excessiveness comes when real property taxes are abated on existing property in addition to new capital investment while providing 75% tax abatements for all for 10-15 years. It would also seem, abating taxes on existing real property would undermine the Pre-K funding formula.

But back to Boyd’s remarks, much of the public does not understand PILOTs to include legislators and perhaps even those on abating boards. A couple of reasons for the confusion is 1) the bogus EDGE projection accounting showing huge projected gains while local property tax revenues are relatively flat and 2) the 75% abatement amount for corporate/real estate interests naturally raises concerns where taxpayers don’t participate at least as much as corporate interests in tax revenue growth from economic development activity.

Further, local Memphis/Shelby taxpayers live in a relative bubble where there is no plan or defined measurement for  economic development. To that extent, the below bullet points can document the excessiveness of the Memphis/Shelby economic development complex where abating boards are incented to represent corporate/real estate interests over the taxpayer through fee revenue based on the overall size of job incentive PILOTs:

3 corporate PILOTs in Nike, IP and FedEx Downtown totaled $148M exceed all of Indianapolis’s incentives that totaled $135M for 110 projects.

5 corporate PILOTs in Nike, IP, FedEx Downtown, Technicolor and Valero totaling $208M exceed all of Nashville’s PILOTs at $200M for 25 projects

90 Memphis projects at $500M+ exceeds by 50% both Indianapolis and Nashville PILOTs at $335M for 135 projects

A macroeconomic analysis, which reviews total employed job throughput using Bureau of Labor and Statistics Quarterly Census of Employment Wages, shows that Memphis paid $14.5K per job while Indianapolis and Nashville both paid $2.5K per job.

The above is a full-blown Memphis/Shelby ecosystem nightmare brought to taxpayers by the FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow corporate community leadership complex. It can’t be defended on the political right or left as it is just Neanderthalishly STUPID in excess and hurts the entire community.

With historically twice the property tax rate of Nashville with $200M in job incentives, given the above analysis, had Memphis/Shelby had 50% total wage growth since 2010 like Nashville, the $500M in job tax incentives could be defended . But Memphis/Shelby had below average total wage growth for the period at 26% while Indianapolis had about average total wage growth at 32% and $135M in total tax incentives.

Next as far as Jones concerns over depreciation on abated personal property taxes, corporate interests enjoy a greater abatement in early years when personal property is more fully valued. For a 10 year abatement the personal property assets are annually appraised at an average value of 42% and for 15 years 35%. By the end the abatement term, when abated personal property returns to the tax rolls, the original property would be valued at 20% of its original value.

Overall, of EDGE’s capital investment figures, approximately $3.4B has been invested in real property, $1.6B in personal property while $450M in existing real property, which is most concerning, has received the benefit of tax abatements.

In short and on balance, given the above excesses and with a botched from the top workforce development system,  Memphis/Shelby has not been engaged in the work of economic development. Instead, the bully hack FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow economic development complex has been engaged in feeding on a community in need while subsidizing corporations and real estate developers under hack “trickle down” better tomorrow theory. The above activity significantly undermines true economic development in safer streets, small business and workforce development.

The solution to correcting the above excesses is right sizing abatements using the following formula that most in the general public would understand. That formula is 50% of new capital investment provided current job levels are maintained while abating 1% of total wages for new jobs only. EDGE term and investment minimums would remain in effect. Applying the above formula to historic abatements would have reduced overall job incentives by $200M since 2010 while right sizing abatements on a per job basis making Memphis abatements twice as much as Nashville.

This proposed reform generously surrenders the benefit of the nationally low- cost business environment of Memphis while recognizing the high Memphis tax rate argument. Another argument that has been surrendered vs Nashville and Indianapolis is a minimum wage eligible for abatement which is now set at $18 per hour in Nashville and Indy.

The below charts show how historic Memphis job tax incentives compare to Nashville on a per job incented basis in actual terms on the left while doubling the Nashville abatement amount on the right to compensate for the higher Memphis tax rate.

The charts below show the impact of the proposed job tax incentive reform model based on PILOT history. In effect, the proposed reform model would still be in actual terms more than twice the amount of Nashville on a per job basis amount as shown on the left while right sizing PILOTs and still being more than Nashville when considering the higher Memphis tax rate as shown on the right. This proposal generously surrenders the lower Memphis business cost operating environment and minimum eligible wage arguments.

To achieve overall 50% on new capital investment, local companies would probably get less than 50% abatement while relocating companies would get more than 50% abatement to compensate for relocation costs to bolster the success rate of external economic development recruitment work. See below charts:

Analysis – More Complete Story High Property Tax Rate

Commissioner Brandon Morrison regularly expresses concern for the high Memphis/Shelby property tax rate regarding economic development work. She is right. The Memphis/Shelby property tax rate is high both on a statewide and national basis. But even with the higher property tax rate, Memphis/Shelby has a low business cost environment ranking 13 out of 100 cities.

The chief question for businesses as far as cost is “what is the overall cost environment in Memphis/Shelby for business operations?” The answer is a very low cost business operating environment making Morrison’s concerns tell only part of the story. Her concerns are similar to a low-cost automobile (overall business costs) with expensive rims (high property tax rate). In this way, overall transportation costs are low as with overall Memphis/Shelby business operations cost in Memphis while conceding more expensive cost components. This reality of a low business cost environment should further raise concerns of excessive tax incentives in an already low-cost business operating environment. The fact is that Memphis/Shelby has been spending excessive amounts on a problem that it does not have in high business operations cost.

Moreover, an increased property tax rate is likely needed to make Memphis a more attractive business investment destination while bridging the gap for excessive tax incentives of the past. Given this, the below table reveals the increased amount of costs that would need to be absorbed or passed on to commercial real estate tenants with a 5% and 10% increase in the property tax rate on an annual basis. The below table assumes 25% of overall appraised property value is personal property depreciated to 50% of its original value. Also, below is a residential analysis.

Under the property tax increases above, annual business facility cost would increase by .12% for a 5% property rate tax increase and .24% for a 10% increase.  A 5 % property tax increase would raise approximately $50M and a 10% property tax rate increase $100M.

Conclusion – Simply Bust It Out

It’s simple. Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris should bust out PILOT reform and a 10% property tax increase while welcoming specific counter proposals in tax utility fees (TUFs) and proposals from the Chamber to fund needed community improvements to attract business investment. The advantage of a property tax increase is that it is something everyone understands while providing a real solution. At the same time, a specific proposal such as a property tax increase puts other entities on the hook to define and provide specific counter funding proposals.

It would be especially helpful, if the local business community would agree to support a property tax increase and PILOT reform to bridge the tax growth revenue gap brought on by excessive tax abatements, the botching of the workforce development system and subsequent below average slow total wage growth.

With the combination of new funding proposals, PILOT reform and economic and workforce development implementation that leverage community assets, Memphis can optimize economic development efforts and achieve better outcomes for the community as a whole.

Good intentions pave the way for Memphis imbalances. The FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow corporate community leadership complex, who has good intentions, is much like a basketball team that intends to win but adopts poor practice habits.

The FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow undertakes many of the right things like golf tournaments to promote the city for business development, small business plan contests, articulating “workforce development is the #1 priority” and “free market” rhetoric and on and on. But culturally, over the last 20 years, in practice, the complex effectively stifles thoughtful dissent, connected workforce development, economic measurement and small business while forcing folks into poverty or out of town.

The ‘trickle down” policy stack promoted by the complex in excessive corporate incentives and unmeasured economic development work, is enough to challenge any city’s economic development efforts. That is why it was so alarming and confirming for this blog that the bully hack FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow complex has no intentions of being accountable through measurement when the University of Memphis abandoned their peer city measurement platform in their The Memphis Economy project. This occurring under the U of M FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow Board of Trustees while leaving the taxpayer in a rhetorical bubble.

While good intentions prevail, inadequate measurement leaves costly economic development efforts without direction or accountability and a community in need holding the bag.

Reconciliation

This blog, initially, was slow to criticize FedEx, thinking that the exhibited Memphis corporate community leadership could not be coming from FedEx. But reconciling the past 2 years of FedEx in the Memphis corporate community leadership space has significantly shifted that position.

First FedEx, along with corporate America, gets a huge Federal tax cut. Then FedEx runs back to Memphis, continues it’s botching of the workforce development system along with Memphis Tomorrow and grabs $35M in tax incentives for downtown. Then runs to Nashville to collect another $10M incentive for downtown and an additional $21M for the hub automation project. With only 340 new FedEx jobs promised, that’s $66M in tax incentives on the heels of a huge corporate tax cut garnered in one of the lowest business cost centers in the country in Memphis !

Is anyone putting this together ? That’s $194K per new job in tax incentives. What in the hell is going on here ???

The State says $21M are for jobs. Sure, there are new jobs in temporary construction jobs but with hub automaton coming there is no way there is going to be an increase in hub jobs. It would seem with a $21M tax abatement, the state could say something about a projected payback period for taxpayers if there is one. And its not like Memphis is not already over invested in transportation, distribution and logistics as well as corporations through excessive incentives as the true drivers in economic development in small business and workforce development are pushed aside.

The Beacon Center of Tennessee, just wrote recently about a troubling trend of anti-entrepreneurial career treks being undertaken by Millennials provoked through heavy college debt burdens and excessive corporate welfare. These realities drain the system of resources to support small business which is the primary driver local economies.

Outside Thinking

If one has worked in other communities outside of Memphis, one can see the botching of the Memphis economic development system from the top, where feeding on a community in need has become common place where no one seems to know anything else. That is what seems to have happened with Smith and Nephew, who must know that societal imbalances are not good for corporate commerce.

S&N, who is under new leadership from outside of Memphis, has recently walked away from an estimated $10M in incentives choosing to invest locally and be a good neighbor. The move has received little press coverage but could be a game changer for a community desperately in need of new more forward innovative thinking in the corporate community leadership space. So there is hope with new corporate thinking locally with S&N.

Conclusion

If local Memphis policy and implementation were optimized today, it would take Memphis 10 years to recover back to mediocrity from the last 8 years of FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow visionary trickle down. Get out of the bubble folks !

With good intentions, it looks to be more of the same with the FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow complex. It’s a complex, insulated in a bubble, that concentrates influence and wealth in the same few hands in a rigged system wondering why Memphis does not grow. Its fairly obvious why Memphis doesn’t grow if one has spent much time outside the city and sees Memphis botched from the top stagnated in a rigged social construct of the 1940s…..

A RESOLUTION BY MEMPHIS RAISE YOUR EXPECTATIONS (MRYE) TO FORMALLY RECOGNIZE THE CORPORATE COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP OF SMITH & NEPHEW USA

WHEREAS, in the current economic development environment, the area’s leading manufacturer in Smith & Nephew USA could have played the game, threatened to leave and likely been the beneficiary of $10M in Memphis & Shelby County tax incentives; and

WHEREAS, Smith & Nephew USA, who is already operating in a quality low-cost business environment in Memphis must have concluded that thankfully they are going nowhere and chose not to play the game while choosing to invest in Whitehaven; and

WHEREAS, Smith & Nephew USA’s local cost benefit analysis must have concluded that being a “good neighbor” that paid their taxes was in the interest of its shareholders; and

WHEREAS, More visionary corporate community leadership as exhibited by Smith & Nephew USA is needed in Memphis to serve the interests of corporations, small business and the community as a whole; and

WHEREAS, Smith & Nephew USA’s local corporate community leadership has gone for the most part unrecognized while it has the potential to be a game changer in the area of local Memphis and Shelby County economic development.

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that MRYE formally recognizes Smith & Nephew USA for its outstanding corporate community leadership in Memphis and Shelby County as a good neighbor.

Can Memphis grow in a bubble while its people are disconnected from reality in a global economy ? No Way !  Institutions across the board continue to fail Memphis/Shelby taxpayers. The press, university community and legislators on the left and the right refuse to confront the indefensible products of the FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow complex. So how does a community improve without needed checks in the system ? It doesn’t; it stagnates into a rigged condition.

That’s what has happened to Memphis after 20 years under the backwards and visionless FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow bully hack complex. The only checks on real power are coming external of Memphis institutions such as ProPublica, Beacon Center of Tennessee and from blogs such as this one.

Example checks on real power made by non-traditional media outlets include: Methodist Hospital, botched from the top workforce development system, bogus EDGE projection accounting, excessive EDGE abatement awards, deficient economic development growth as expressed through credible measurement and EDGE apparent misuse of Depot proceeds. The cost to taxpayers uncovered soars into the billions.

Without the above, the community is left blind in a rigged stagnant condition without the information to inform needed improvement, growth and evolution in a global economy.

See the Excess in PILOTs ?

One example of this type of information regarding excessive PILOTs is below. Memphis/Shelby taxpayers are not going to see information such as this anywhere else. This blog, whose rhetoric has been questioned states that the FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow complex feeds on a community in need. How else would one describe the information below where the five PILOT projects of existing companies in Nike, International Paper, Technicolor, FedEx and Valero that total $207M exceed the total job PILOTs each for Nashville and Indianapolis?

This is what happens when an elitist system is designed and incented to award large corporate abatements for the benefit of the small few in an already low cost business environment with Memphis ranking 13 out of 100 metroes. This is not economic development; its economic devolution and community disinvestment. See below table:

At the same time the proposed PILOT reform solution of this blog, would have still awarded the 5 above companies PILOTs based on their new capital investment and jobs, just not $207M. And that’s even though most of the companies are in reality going nowhere like Valero. The applied formula is 50% of new capital investment and 1% abatement on total wages for new jobs.

As for overall implementation, existing companies would likely get less than a 50% abatements to compensate for larger abatement packages exceeding 50% for new industry recruitment and operational relocation costs. In the end, the proposed system is designed to award 50% overall for new capital investment while maintaining EDGE investment and term requirements. The 1% abatement for new jobs would apply for new and existing companies.

To that extent, for example purposes only, 50% abatement amount was applied to show revised abatement amounts using the proposed reform model for existing companies mentioned above:

Conclusion

Memphis can’t grow in a bubble while listening to FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow propaganda. Legislators know that tax incentives are beyond excessive and that EDGE appears to have engaged in the misuse of $1.7M Depot funds. Legislators would be best served to send the FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow complex a $500M invoice payable immediately while getting to work and when needed engaging a new brand of corporate community leaders.

FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow lacks the capacity and vision to propel Memphis forward. Their vision has been realized over 20 years and it’s a Memphis community left behind in a global economy with massive imbalances. So sad as it was authored from the top of the Memphis ecosystem. Tuff n Cool Man, Tuff n Cool to feed on a community in need……