Over 8 years, EDGE oversight is the botch of all botches as the Memphis community has been undermined with excessive corporate/real estate incentives. This blog chooses to write about the indefensible. And the bogus projection accounting carried out over 8 years by the EDGE Board resulting in projected tax revenue overstatements that approach $1B, without effective legislative oversight, is indefensible on the political right or left. Everyone loses in this scenario even corporate/real estate interests in the long run.

Shelby County Government and Memphis City Government should demand a publicly available legal opinion on their authority to end EDGE abatements  and authority. This action would clarify and serve notice to the public and legislative bodies of their authority over EDGE. And concerns do not just pertain to excessive abatements but also fund misuse.

In a recent email exchange regarding an apparent misuse of $1.7M in EDGE/Depot funds for workforce (GMACW), municipal Chamber grants and a railroad connection, Reid Dulberger defended the fund use while referencing state law and not the Depot’s  local charge. The Depot Redevelopment Corporation and Board was originally set up per the EDGE website in 1997, to acquire and redevelop the former Memphis Defense Depot with approximately 4.25 million square feet of space. Later EDGE took over the management of the Depot under the original local charge.

This is not a state issue but a local issue. The expenditure, under any conditions, is not consistent with the Depot’s local charge. Which is where local oversight comes in and probably why the Depot Board themselves never voted on allocating the $1.7M in funds. Local government should demand EDGE to pay back $1.7M in funds to the taxpayer on the basis that the expenditure was outside their local charge.

Again, this is not a state but a local government oversight issue. EDGE can’t be allowed to just slush out $1.7M  in funds outside of their local charge.

Bogus PILOT Accounting and Excessive Abatements

As far as the bogus EDGE accounting resulting in some $200M+ in excessive corporate/real estate abatements, local government should immediately engage in PILOT reform to curtail excessive abatements that undermine the societal foundation on which commerce thrives. Local corporations are experiencing the impact. While challenged with filling open jobs, some corporate citizens such as Smith & Nephew and Surface Dynamics are walking away from incentives while choosing to invest in the Memphis community with already low business operating costs. But surprisingly, no one is talking about such exemplar corporate citizenry.

The excessive incentive and bogus EDGE accounting issue is not new. It has been written about extensively as local elected officials sit on their hands while the community suffers. Recently, at a County Commission meeting, a $100k expenditure for Kudzukian was questioned.  Professional production of podcast could probably be done cheaper but at least the community is getting something of value for their money. Meanwhile, the City Council and Commission actually pay EDGE fee revenue to conduct taxpayer losing transactions for real estate deals under the heading of “economic development”. See Cherry Tree analysis contained in this blog.

Below are some resources that document bogus accounting and local job incentive excesses and this does not even include scrutiny of some 8 or 9 other abating boards for which evaluation has not been scheduled per Shelby County Commission resolution.

EDGE PILOT Excesses – $500M+ in abatements vs $335M combined for Nashville and Indianapolis that both have far greater total wage growth while blog provides a solution to right size PILOTs. Right sizing PILOTs would occur with a 50% abatement for new Capx provided that current jobs levels are maintained while adopting EDGE’s current investment and term minimums with an additional 1% abatement for total wages on new jobs only. In practice, existing local companies would likely be required to take less than a 50% abatement while providing, at times, over 50% abatements for external corporate recruitment to soften the impact of relocation costs. 

Daily Memphian – 4/15/19 – Beacon Center of Tennessee weighs in on bogus EDGE retention PILOT accounting. Mistakes were found in their credible analysis and were later corrected and written about in the “MCCLM and Beacon Methods” blog below.

Commercial Appeal Editorial – 6/18/18 – Article explains the omissions from EDGE retention PILOT accounting to confirm bogus accounting. This is much like omitting expenses from an income statement or liabilities from a balance sheet. The bogus projection accounting cannot be defended. 

Excessive PILOT Accounting Explained Video

Excessive PILOTs Benchmarked Against Nashville 5/19/19

Real Measurement – 6/18/19 – Conclusively proves excessive incentives are not working to increase total wage growth to improve the social well being of people while showing employment growth is the chief challenge to increasing total wage growth which raises workforce development concerns. 

MCCLM and Beacon Methods on Bogus EDGE Retention PILOT Accounting – EDGE shows a $683M gain from retentions per EDGE Scorecard analysis. MCCLM shows a $120M taxpayer loss and $803M EDGE projected revenue overstatement. Beacon method shows a $95M loss and $759M overstatement

The excesses are clear and demand governmental oversight and reform.

Greater Memphis Alliance for Competitive Workforce (GMACW) Botch

As workforce development #1 priority is shouted from the mountaintop, the EDGE/GMACW Board is a full blown nightmare. They have only publicly met 3 times in almost 2.5 years and have not met in over a year. This occurs as workforce development efforts remain disconnected over a 4 year period. Cary Vaughn has sat on 2 GMACW Boards and has yet to publicly raise concerns or go on the record regarding the lack of execution. And Jack Moore, the Board Chairman, has religiously not held public meetings.

GMACW was supposed to connect local workforce development efforts using a data driven approach. Instead, the GMACW Board shut out local small business from bringing solutions forward to correct the problem, a local cultural norm in a closed rigged system, while not holding public meetings on the back of a failed Canadian contract award.

All the while, Moore, Vaughn and Jack Dyer can be found motioning for approval of taxpayer losing incentives as they don’t hold public GMACW meetings. At the most recent EDGE meeting, its was Dyer that moved for the approval of the taxpayer losing Cherry Tree real estate deal and Moore coming in with a hearty seconding motion.

In this way, real estate development is the #1 priority and not economic or workforce development. And that is further evidenced by the touting of $19B in potential development as opposed to being concerned with measuring total wage growth and improving the social well being of people.

Conclusion

The lack of vitality that occurs in a rigged system is locally evident. The Memphis decline, over time, has occurred without an external event which points to leadership. A primary indicator is the lack of administrative and legislative oversight over abating boards. Lacking governmental oversight is further enabled by a lack of investigative reporting and institutional vitality recently found with the University of Memphis.

Progressing Memphis forward will require more rigorous government oversight, credible measurement and informed taxpayer advocacy. Unless the former occurs, community decline will likely continue.

Talent pipeline development is economic development. But unfortunately, while most cities have been engaged in the work of true economic development in workforce and small business development, Memphis has been engaged in a version of corporate socialism through excessive tax abatements for the benefit of the small few. The implementation of corporate socialism has been enabled by recognizing Northern Mississippi and Eastern Arkansas as primary economic development competitors as opposed to collaborative competitors in regional economic development while using bogus accounting to justify excessive corporate/real estate abatements.

Meanwhile, Memphis small business vitality has plummeted and disconnected workforce development efforts persist in the wake of stagnating corporate socialism. Based on a review of 14 peer cities data, per the American Cities Business Journal, which includes cities like Nashville, Louisville, Jacksonville and Indianapolis it was found that the average total wage growth rate for cities that had above peer average small business vitality rankings was 42% compared to those that were below average at 30%

Additionally, it was found, based on the latest release of Integrated Post-secondary Education Data System (IPEDS) data, that Memphis completion rates were below average. To that extent, an analysis was done focusing on post-secondary awards of less than 1 year. The analysis found that for cities that had above peer average completion rates, the average total wage growth rate for those cities was 39% and below peer average cities had an average growth rate of 33%. See Data:

The above is why the countywide IMPLEMENTATION of Junior Achievement (JA), recently funded by the Shelby County Commission, going beyond 11,000 students and connecting the workforce development system through career pathways is so important. JA programming stresses relevant entrepreneurial, financial literacy and work readiness education for all which supports small business development and higher post-secondary completion rates. And the former promotes greater total wage and tax revenue growth for all while retaining and developing talent.

Just Do It –  National Leadership in Junior Achievement and Career Pathways

Given local needs, Memphis should think big to become the national leader in career education which involves post-secondary education for all. This would leverage JA content programming around relevant entrepreneurial, financial literacy and work readiness education while increasing post-secondary completion rates while perhaps becoming a national leader in ACT WorkKeys implementation.

Entrepreneurship most often starts with occupation and occupation starts with education. And financial literacy and career choice involves exposure to career pathways that allow for minimization of student debt with post-secondary award options starting at less than 1 year enabling one to start earning a $50K annual salary 1 year out of high school.

Given the coming Technami that is sure to impact all industries, companies such as Google and Apple have abandoned their 4 year degree requirement. Local Memphis employers, if they have not already, are sure to follow. Given this probability, students need exposure to career pathways planning opportunities that allow them to fully leverage these career opportunities while companies need a process for identifying those student candidates through a connected workforce development system.

Connection – Common Language and Candidate Identification

Connecting any system requires common language and that is the same with the workforce development system so that stakeholders from diverse professional backgrounds can effectively communicate. And accelerating the school to employment connection through more efficient career pathways pressures stronger and more relevant soft/foundational skill development as supported by JA programming.

Common language, with respect to the workforce development system, involves 1) employer demand data, 2) relevant curriculum like JA with a focus on soft/foundational skill development and career pathways planning, 3) common assessment around student interest, work preferences and skill readiness and 4) common job board and connecting technology for marketing and cost minimization.

Throughout the country, well intended business-education partnerships routinely fail due to the lack of common language and an entry point for employer engagement into daily instructional practice such as what JA so adequately provides. With the implementation of common language in support of career pathways and the JA curriculum content platform, the workforce development system can connect employers, educators, policymakers, students and parents while powering the local economy. This includes making the connection with current programming such as what the Greater Memphis Medical Device Council provides.

The Employer Connection In Practice

So, what might common language implementation and a process look like for a local employer in need of technology professionals? A company would want to identify candidates based on the following criteria using research-based assessments that includes interest, work preferences, ACT WorkKeys and ideally a completed career plan while promoting timely post-secondary education options for potential employment. An acronym for such a process is IPEG – Identify, Promote, Enroll and Graduate.

With information technology jobs in mind, the ideal student candidate for employer identification would have the following outcomes:

Interest Profile (6): Investigative and Conventional. Validates student fit for information technology occupations. See the above graphic for this section for an ideal information technology candidate interest profile.

Work Preference (6): Achievement, Independence or Recognition. Validates fit for information technology occupations.

ACT WorkKeys National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC) – Gold preferably or Silver Certificate. Validates student foundational skill readiness in Applied Math, Reading and Graphical Literacy for information technology occupations.

Capstone – Junior Achievement graduate and career plan. Validates students soft and foundational skill development and career intent

Employers Promote – Student enrollment in Early Postsecondary Opportunities to facilitate career plan completion, efficient career pathways navigation and graduation.

Below is a ranking of the 33 skills most important for information technology occupations from the world leading O*NET database. These skills have been cross referenced based on projected employer demand for informational technology jobs in the Greater Memphis Area. The most important skills for information technology jobs are addressed in the JA curriculum. As one can see, the more general soft and foundational skills are most important to informational technology jobs as they are to all occupational clusters. See skills.

While the above has focused on occupation which generally comes before starting one’s own business, JA programming plants the seed and develops entrepreneurial thinking that is often needed in employment, management and certainly needed to build a vibrant small business community with the help of financially literate entrepreneurs.

Conclusion

Measurement of the talent pipeline development effort above can be accomplished through centralized web based technology and dashboard for authorized viewing. With that said, centralized technology is not required for the implementation of career pathways, it just reduces implementation costs while streamlining career pathways marketing efforts. Under any condition, robust countywide expansion of Junior Achievement and career pathways through common language development should immediately occur.

Here is the good news. Properly implemented, all of the above can be seamlessly integrated into the academically aligned standards-based curriculum so that educators don’t have yet another task, separate from the mainstream curriculum.  All of this helps to connect the workforce development system with common language while getting employers, educators, policymakers, students and parents on the same page while powering the local economy.

So Just Do It ! Think BIG Memphis. Think National Leadership in Career Education which includes 4 year degrees and beyond for many.

Memphis is just not focused on the real North American economic development competition. Away from the boom town Nashville, take for example a similar river city to Memphis in Louisville which is also an air cargo hub city for UPS.

Louisville has had 40% total wage growth compared to Memphis at 26% since 2010 based on a review of the data. And they have been focused on employer aligned workforce development while also having higher business operational cost ranked at 36 than Memphis ranked at 13 per Wallet Hub. 

This is unfortunate as Memphis has been focused on tax incentives for mostly local concerns and the fake monster competition drummed up by the local establishment in Northern Mississippi and Eastern Arkansas by the hack FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow complex. The local workforce development botch, that is not written about by the local non-investigative press, is by far the most expensive and economically damaging while costing taxpayers over time an estimated $1B in wages and $30M in recurring annual taxpayer revenue. With the FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow complex, its Tuff n Cool to feed on a community and need and its not good for local business !

This is why Memphis does not grow. Companies leave or choose not to come to Memphis because of high crime rates and a challenged workforce and not because of challenging business operational costs. All the while taxpayer money is expended to solve a problem that Memphis does not have in high business operational costs, as the FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow complex feeds on a community in need while advancing a fake competitive monster in Northern Mississippi and Eastern Arkansas.

At a recent public event in Orange Mound, Greater Memphis Chamber CEO Beverly Roberston said, “that Memphis is in competitive warfare with Southaven and West Memphis as all three cities work to lure the same businesses. And then went on to say without a policy reference or data citation, “Other cities, they give cash,” before asking Orange Mound residents to imagine where they would choose to go if they had a company and one city — in this case, West Memphis or Southaven — offered cash in addition to incentives to locate there but the other city — Memphis — offered a less lucrative package.

It also seems ironic that the Chamber is so concerned about Northern Mississippi and Eastern Arkansas as significant resources have been allocated to regional economic development efforts in the Memphis Mega Site two counties away in Haywood County. The fact is that when a company chooses to locate in North Mississippi or Eastern Arkansas that its a win for the regional economy over some other region of the United States.

And the Memphis Business Journal reported today in an article concerning Richard Smith’s promotion that economic development reforms have not been implemented. While this blog has had a dust up with Richard in the past, Richard, on multiple occasions, tried to expedite meaningful economic development implementation, a weakness for Memphis, only to be obstructed by the  FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow complex. It seems that would not be the case but FedEx goes well beyond Richard Smith.

But, so much for real competition in North American cities like Louisville, Memphis is focused on  Southaven and Eastern Arkansas.

Workforce Memphis vs Louisville

So how is Louisville increasing total wage growth by 40% compared to Memphis as 26% ? Well it appears,  beyond empty rhetoric, that workforce may be Louisville’s  #1 IMPLEMENTATION priority. Louisville / Jefferson County has an older approximately 717K in population compared to a younger 937K for Shelby County. Yet, based on the most recent data from the Integrated Post Secondary Data System, Jefferson County had 13,609 post secondary awards compared to 12,283 for the much larger Shelby County. Based on a percentage of the population that would equate to 4,300 more post-secondary awards across award levels for Jefferson over Shelby County.

4300 more post secondary awards would go a long way in Shelby County to satisfying employer occupational demand and 10-15k open jobs. The above chart shows the post secondary award gap derived from percentage analysis based on Shelby County’s 937K population. Its clear that  Louisville is addressing the bulk of employer demand that requires less than a four year college degree while also addressing 4 year and above degrees.

The below table reveals the post-secondary workforce development gap Memphis versus Louisville derived from a percentage analysis. Also referenced are the O*NET job zones with a job zone 1 being below a high school equivalency, 2 being at least a high school equivalency, 3 an Associate Degree, 4 Bachelor Degree and 5 Masters Degree or above.

Its clear from the below data, that projected employer demand for the 2024 projections from the former Shelby and Fayette County Local Workforce Development Area that the bulk of employer occupational demand at 77% requires less than a Bachelors Degree while much of job zone 2 requires a post-secondary award. This is based on public data previously published by the Tennessee Department of Labor for the previous workforce development LWDA 13 region that has since been expanded to include Tipton and Lauderdale counties. This type of distribution is fairly common across the country based on publicly available data that typically contains some data suppression for select occupations.

That is why promoting career pathways and less than Bachelor’s Degree to fuel the local economy is vital while knowing that progression along these career pathways can lead to a Bachelor’s Degree or above.  See below data for job zone 1 being below a high school equivalency, 2 being at least a high school equivalency that likely includes a post secondary certification, 3 an Associate Degree, 4 Bachelor Degree and 5 Masters Degree or above.

Conclusion

Its stunning that the FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow complex has botched true economic development while bullying and dismissing their own people through a lack of connected workforce development implementation. A decision that goes to the top of the Memphis ecosystem while the very same people feed on a Memphis community in need with excessive tax incentives.

No city can grow while its citizens are bullied through excessive tax abatements that benefit the small few while dismissing their own small business and the education of its citizenry. But with the FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow complex, its more of the same with focus, focus, focus on Memphis economic rivals in North Mississippi and Eastern Arkansas instead of the real competition in North American cities like Louisville who are actually engaged in the work of economic and workforce development.

But in the Memphis bubble of FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow, North Mississippi and Eastern Arkansas are the primary Memphis economic development competitors. The complex loves to tell the Memphis citizenry what to think and if the community continues to buy it and recognizes N. Mississippi and East Arkansas as their primary economic development competitor, Memphis loses out of the gate.

Memphis has declined because its built in to the economic development design and a cultural output of the bully hack FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow corporate community complex. The complex actually believes that they can systematically bully their citizenry and evolve the Memphis ecosystem. So much for economic growth…..

The Shelby County Regional Economic Alliance (SREA) looks to be a cheerleading platform, early failure and more of the same. The FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow complex is notorious for lowering expectations enabled through a lack of measurement. In this environment, the prevailing Memphis economic development competition in a global economy is Northern Mississippi and Eastern Arkansas as stated by the Chamber’s Beverly Robertson  at a recent Orange Mound gathering. This is much like the University of Memphis declaring the Arkansas State Red Wolves of Jonesboro, AR. its chief football rival. By default, it lowers the expectation and performance standard.

At the last SREA meeting, the lack of shovel ready sites arose as a local challenge. But that was addressed over a year ago by Dexter Muller in EDGE County Commission hearings with nothing seemingly have progressed since then. Muller said in that meeting the State does not send Memphis manufacturing leads anymore due to the lack of available sites. That should have lit a bonfire under someone. But apparently it did not.

Here’s the thing about the governing FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow complex. They don’t course correct. They make a mess and just leave it there like with workforce or having fake EDGE oversight hearings that resolve nothing. I’m convinced if FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow visited the home of the taxpayer for dinner, they would dump their food in the floor and walk right through it.

Memphis lacks the courage to face its problems and real competition which in a global economy is North American Cities not North Mississippi. The SREA could have discussed real measurement and tax incentive reform involving the EDGE Scam. But it appears to have been mostly a cheerleading meeting and rehash of an old topic in the lack of shovel ready sites with no forward progress over the past year.

The EDGE Scam

The EDGE scam was born out of the bully hack FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow complex soon after the great recession under the heading of “government efficiency”. The great recession was enabled largely on the false assumption by financial engineers that real estate values would never fall. FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow followed that up with some local financial engineering through a new “government efficient” agency called EDGE.

The EDGE Scam is based on the following false assumptions with their own version of financial engineering to justify excessive incentives for the benefit of corporate/real estate interests and the small few:

Falsely assuming the entire direct and indirect tax base associated with a given entity disappears from Memphis/Shelby on a company operational relocation to N. Mississippi or elsewhere

That 75% abatements are required on new CapX and most egregiously at times  existing property in an already low business cost environment for economic development retention and recruitment.

After promising government efficiencies to avoid politicization of tax abatements, EDGE is explicitly and overtly incented to side with corporate/real estate interests over the taxpayer.

That tax abatements have a vastly superior economic multiplying impact to employ people that serve global audiences over publicly administered labor and expenditures that serve the local community.

Further, at today’s EDGE meeting, they voted for a project in Cherry Tree that is a direct taxpayer loss. A direct taxpayer loss results when approving the transaction, costs taxpayer money which is far worse than a taxpayer shortfall which results in excessive abatements while needed tax revenue growth falters.

Here is why the Cherry Tree transaction is a direct taxpayer loss. Some $1.7M in existing property taxes are abated over 10 years for 25 low wage $13 per hour jobs. This is real estate deal not an economic development deal. North Mississippi or Eastern Arkansas would not have this dog while it loses Memphis/Shelby taxpayers almost $1M. Forget about our real competitors in North American cities. See full Cherry Tree Analysis here.

The Cherry Tree PILOT follows the same taxpayer losing path as F8 Zone and Mark Anthony.  The FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow complex apparently thinks this stuff is Tuff n Cool and good for business while undermining the societal foundation on which commerce thrives. Its not good for business !

And if that is not enough, the Memphis Business Journal reported on a tax incentive for Coca Cola in West Memphis, that based on the article, would total $675k for 60 jobs at $50K for a $33M capital investment. EDGE would abate $3.7M for that project or perhaps more. What’s up with that ?

At the same time, all was not bad at the EDGE meeting as it was revealed that some creative collaboration had resulted in the recruitment of Bluff City Law to Memphis. But overall, elitist feeding on a community in need will never result in economic prosperity and community evolution.

Conclusion and SREA

It seems if the SREA were serious about any type of oversight they would have flagged these recent Cherry Tree and F8 Zone PILOTs for opposition. But its more of the same. It was remarked at the EDGE meeting about a continuation of incentives until workforce is addressed. That regards a workforce development system botched by the FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow complex which includes the Chamber and EDGE.

The FedEx/Memphis Tomorrow complex can’t continue to feed on a community in need and expect to improve the Memphis economic development product. This occurs as new more forward thinking corporate community leadership emerges from the medical device industry in Smith & Nephew and Surface Dynamics out of Bartlett who are investing locally without any incentives. They both know workforce is the #1 challenge in Memphis by far and not lowering business operating cost where Memphis is a national low cost leader.

If the SREA is to compete in a global economy, they need to have the courage to acknowledge the real competition while establishing a measurable definition for economic development and implementing a real plan. Real estate development is not economic development and bullying and feeding on a community in need will never work. But thus far, the SREA has been an early failure while resulting in more of the same…..

And oh yeah, dont forget that $1.7M in Depot funds that should come back from the taxpayer.

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.