TennWatch/Volitics

Shelby County May Sue the State

County Commissioner Mike Ritz has run the numbers and figures the state is short changing the citizens of Shelby County in education funds:

Ritz said his research shows Shelby County is one of few Tennessee counties to be paying more toward education than what the state provides.  Ritz believes Shelby County is sacrificing so that other school districts can get more state funding.

According to Ritz's numbers, the state has short changed Shelby County between $32 and $35 million a year.

Ritz is going to talk to the other county commissioners to determine the feasibility of suing the state for the lost funds and to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Problem is, I don't see how winning this suit would be possible. So what if Shelby County citizens are subsidizing the education of kids in other parts of the state? How is that different from what the federal government does? Or the state in a host of other programs?

If the money was expected to stay where it is earned, then we wouldn't need government. Hmmmm, now there's an idea . . .

Nike Comes to Frayser

Nike has purchased 125 acres in the Northridge area on which it will build a new 1 million square foot footwear distribution center.

Nike expects to realize more than $200 million in cost efficiencies totaling, not to mention reduced shipping times. And, of course, Nike gets a sweet Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) deal from both Memphis and Shelby County because of the expected job creation and capital improvements to the area.

The new facility will replace one in Wilsonville, Oregon as another company moves off of the east coast and comes to Tennessee.

Memphis City Schools Doing Better: D's and F's

The Feds (in the form of the Department of Education) have put Memphis City Schools in the "good standing" category for the first time in 3 years.

But the state has given Memphis Schools all "D's" and "F's" for overall achievement — again.

The Tennessee Department of Education gave Memphis City Schools "D's" in math, reading and social studies and an "F" in science for overall achievement in kindergarten through 8th grades. ...

But students did better than they did the year before. The district got high marks for progress, with "B's" for Math and Reading and "A's" for Social Studies and Science.

So how well are Memphis schools doing to deserve that "B" and "A" for improvement?

• One in three high-schoolers have sub-par math skills
• One in five elementary and middle-schoolers don't measure up in math
• One in five kindergarten through 8th grade students don't make the grade in reading
• One in ten high schoolers reading skills aren't up to snuff

Fayette County students aren't doing much better, earning the district a "D" in Math, Reading and Language and Social Studies and a big, fat "F" in Science.

Tipton County students fare much better with "B's" in Math, Reading and Language and "C's" in Social Studies and Science (about the same as the state average).

Shelby County schools, however, have reason to be proud: straight "A's" in achievement and for academic progress.

No wonder Memphis mayor "King Willie" Herrenton wants to consolidate the Memphis and county school systems; adding in the county schools would result in a nice "C" average for his "legacy".

Conservatives Defined

The CCR is putting together a new monthly newsletter, The Patriot. Check out the cover. I particularly love the quote in big, bold black letters:

Conservative Republicans do not just sit back and observe.
They Stampede into the fight.

Now there's a sentiment straight from the mind of Angelo Cobrasci — the force behind the CCR and the most fiercely-conservative person I've ever had the pleasure to meet.

Speaking of Angelo, I find that I have been remiss in not congratulating him. When a passionate conservative lands an interview with the most liberal rag in town, you know you're starting to really make a difference.

Technorati tags: Angelo Cobrasci, Passionate Conservatives.

Tonya Saafir: Candidate for Criminal Court Judge Division 1

Attorney Tonya Saafir (website not yet active) addressed the SCCRC (Shelby County Conservative Republican Club), and the following is the results of my rather hurried notes.

She was quite a good speaker and had quite a good story to tell:

She is a veteran who is the daughter of veterans. She comes from a patriotic family and her mom was in Desert Storm.

After getting out of the service she went to Austin Peay State University. In spite of being a single mother of four small children (she was divorced), she graduated magna cum laude with a law degree.

She became a public defender and after a year she stepped out into private practice (something difficult to do for anyone, particularly difficult for a single mother whose oldest is ten).

She spoke about trying to raise her children in today's environment. She is afraid for them and feels "locked in" because they have to hide behind locked doors.

She believes in second chances for non-violent offenders. Those that assault, rape and murder are a different story, but she believes in rehabilitation and change.

As I said, Tonya was an impressive speaker. She did not mention her party affiliation, although after listening to her I think that she would be a most conservative Democrat. Voting in Memphis lists her as having voted only three times in the last 12 years, one of which was in a Democrat primary. Then again, she didn't register to vote in Shelby County until September of 2000 and (obviously) she has been rather busy.

Tonya's opponent is incumbent Judge Paula Skahan, who was appointed by Gov. Bredesen in 2004. Skahan has voted 16 times in the last 12 years, 9 of those times were in Democrat primaries.

Judge Skahan acheived local noteriety when she disallowed 33 pounds of cocaine discovered during a traffic stop. The drug smuggler was going eight miles over the speed limit, but Skahan ruled that the police officer illegally detained the criminal and subsequently illegally searched the criminal's vehicle. There has been much debate about the case, but the bottom line is that her decision was upheld by the appeals court.

AlphaPatriot Pick: If the vote were today, I would pick Tonya Saafir. Her drive, committment to family, ability to get ahead in spite of obsticles, her passion, her background and her (admittedly brief) talk about values were impressive. Besides, LeftWing Cracker is supporting the incumbent, a diehard Democrat appointed by Bredesen.

Voter Lookup

Voting in Memphis has created a great query site. Just put in a name or address to find out how many times someone has voted in the last 12 years, as well as a count of the times they've voted in the Dem primary and how many times in the Rep primary.

Shep — Again

Democrat Shep Wilbun was once the Juvenile Court Clerk, as well as Memphis city councilman, Shelby County commissioner, and candidate for Memphis mayor. I've heard stories of favoritism and shady dealings and even a federal indictment for sexual assault.

Slippery Shep has never been convicted.

I heard him speak at a Shelby County Libertarian meeting and found him to be thoughtful, highly intelligent, educated and eloquent. If I didn't know some of his history, I might have been sucked in.

Shep won the Democrat primary for Juvenile Court Clerk, so he will be facing incumbent Steve Stamson this fall. Hopefully the voters will remember that Stamson cleaned up the Clerk's office and saved the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Another Stamson

Debbie Stamson, wife of Juvenile Court Clerk Steve Stamson, has worked in the county Clerk's office for twenty-something years. So when the incumbent decided to step down, Debbie figured she was a logical replacement.

So did County Commissioner Marilyn Loeffel.

I supported Debbie (another sign in my yard) and she came through tonight, taking the primary 55% to 45%.

Commisioner Bunker

The primary for County Commissioner District 4 Position 2 was another of my hot buttons today.

Tom Moss was running and had the threat of name recognition. Unfortunately, that name recognition was because Tom "the Tax Man" Moss voted to tax the citizens of Shelby County in order to build a basketball stadium and attract the Grizzlies to town. (That's the same Grizzlies that recently set an NBA record for losing 12 straight playoff games.)

Jim Bomprezzi has some minor name recognition as a past mayor of Lakeland. I have yet to find a resident of Lakeland that has fond memories of Bomprezzi's reign.

Unknown Wyatt Bunker stepped up and challenged these two veteran politicans. Wyatt is a dynamic young man that earned my support the first time I talked to him. The latest storm blew away my Bunker yard sign, but there'll be a replacement soon because he took the race.

Dems Elect Closet Republican

My favorite primary race that took place today was County Commissioner District 2 Position 1 — for the Democrats.

J.W. Gibson took the Democrat primary with 41%, fending off Walter Bailey (33%) and D. Harris (26%).

Gibson is a self-made man, coming up from nothing, joining the Navy, using the GI bill to get a college education and eventually becoming quite successful. For example, his company prints the tickets for the Tennessee Lottery, even though his company was nothing but a business plan when he won the contract. Why? Because he has connections, heads a minority-owned business — and writes a hell of a business plan.

Voters that pay attention know that Gibson has been very active in the Republican Party. In fact, had the County Democrat machine had time to respond, they would have thrown him off the Democrat ballot. But Gibson slide in under the wire, put together a well financed campaign (Gibson's big plywood signs were everywhere!) and took the primary.

This is a heavily Democrat district so whoever has a "D" behind their name this fall will be elected. So say hello to Commissioner Gibson, a Republican in Democrat clothing.

Carpenter Spanks Templeton

Another not-my-district-but-darned-interesting race was County Commissioner District 1 Position 3 with Mike Carpenter facing off with Karla Willingham Templeton.

I know Karla socially and find her bright and interesting. On the other hand, she is John Willingham's daughter and supports his payroll tax plan.

But Mike Carpenter seems a little too well financed and too well connected for my tastes.

Again, moot point, because Carpenter buried Karla 72% to 28%.

Ritz over Rude

The Shelby County Commissioner District 1 Position 1 race was one I was following pretty closely, even though I don't live in that district.

Early this year I saw a debate between Mike Ritz and Mike Rude. Rude, a political newcomer, was a project manager for FedEx and absolutely blew Ritz away in the debate.

In the end, however, I think Ritz was better financed and that made the difference. Rude made a point of not taking money that had even a hint of unethical behavior, depending heavily on individual donations.

I hope Mike Rude runs for something in the future.

County Mayor

Looks like John Willingham stuffed upstart Brent Todd (59% to 41%) in the Republican primary for Shelby County Mayor.

I don't know anything about Brent Todd. I know that John Willingham proposed a "payroll tax" as county commissioner. Thus I voted for Todd.

I know — typical ignornat voter.

It is, however, completely moot. Democrat incumbent AC Wharton took 95% in the Democrat primary, and will coast to reelection this fall.

Dead Man Voting

Memphis' local paper, the Commercial Appeal, has done something unusual: real investigative journalism. And it's even relevant: voter fraud in the days before a primary.

Using information available to the public (including the Election Commission), the CA found:

• Voters who died decades ago remain eligible to vote.
• Felons are ineligible to vote, but are hired at taxpayer expense to work the polls and oversee the election process. We're talking everything from sexual assault to burglary, gun violence, prostitution and drugs.
• 20,000 residents who have moved out of Shelby County since 2002, yet remain on Shelby County's voter rolls.
• Nearly 1,700 of those have returned to vote, sometimes years later.
• A total of over 66,000 Shelby County residents have moved since 2002, which means that potentially tens of thousands are no longer residing in the district in which they're registered to vote. This was an issue in Democrat Ophilia Ford's 13 vote "win" over Terry Roland, an election that has since been nullified by the state senate because it was proven dirty.
• 18,000 of the moves were to locations outside of Tennessee, another 2,900 to other counties. Yet the paper identified at least 1,600 incidents in which these names were used to cast votes.

In a follow-up story, the CA reports:

Using the same public records available to county officials, the newspaper identified at least 500 deceased residents still on the rolls -- many shown as active voters.

One of these registered voters died in 1954!.

Moreover, John Harvey has found 575 people on the rolls over 100 years of age — including three people that are 177 years old! (I'd love to know how many of these people voted recently.)

Much of the research done by the CA was accomplished by matching the names of the county's 603,000 registered voters against National Change of Address data maintained by the Postal Service, a practice that is growing among election commissions across the country. Shelby County, of course, does not.

Republican Representative Paul Stanley sponsored a bill that would require an annual statewide NCOA search, but pulled it "because of Democrat opposition to any tinkering with voter rolls." Imagine that.

Yet by law, Tennessee's 95 county election commissions must have an address verification program in place to help keep voting rolls clean. What has Shelby County done?

Last July, the commission passed an address verification program to be done once every two years, but it wouldn't contact all voters, just those who didn't vote or update registration. Those voters are then to be mailed a card that can't be forwarded. If a card returns as undeliverable, the voter is to be deemed inactive -- the first step toward purging.

That's right — Shelby County has initiated a program to purge the voting rolls of all names that haven't been fraudently used. Way to "clean up"!

Note that the CA didn't even begin to address the whole "are you a citizen" issue. I suspect there are hundreds more violations under that rock.

One final thought: Tennessee is increasingly voting Republican (and proudly gave 11 electoral votes to W instead of native son Gore in 2000). Yet because the Tennessee House has a Democrat majority, all 95 county election commissions across the state have a Democrat majority, no matter what the makeup of the county's electorate.

Here in Shelby County, Election Commission Chair Greg Duckett served as state counsel to Senator Gore and worked on the Clinton-Gore transition team. And member Maura Black Sullivan worked for US Congressman Harold Ford, Jr., was President of the Shelby County Democratic Women, and served as Vice Chair and Assistant Treasurer of the local Democratic Party.

Not exactly non-partisan supervisors of our democratic processes.

Ah, well. Life goes on and today is election day in Shelby County as the first primary of the year is being held. As the Commercial Appeal says:

It's Election Day. Get out and vote: If exercising your right isn't reason enough to vote, consider this:

You might just bump into a dearly departed friend or relative casting a ballot.

Technorati Tags: Voting Reform, Crooked Politics, Dead Man Voting, Elections, Memphis+Politics, Shelby County Tennessee, Tennessee Politics.

Shelby County Debt

The Commercial Appeal printed an article on Sunday showing that Shelby County debt now stands at $1.7 billion and will increase to $1.9 billion by 2009. They go on to applaud County Mayor AC Wharton's stewardship (even though debt continues to rise on his watch and he tells us to expect it to go on rising through the entire decade).

And what is Wharton doing so well? For one, he expects to gain another revenue source. That is, he is planning on passing his spending problems on to the taxpayers through one of two ways: a real estate transfer tax (which will impact the housing boom and drive even more homeowners out of the county) or a property tax hike of as much as 19 cents (again, new homeowners will leave the county).

In addition, county government will have to stick to its pared-down CIP (capital improvement program) budget and spend no more than is planned.

"The key," Wharton said, "is discipline."

The key is staying within your budget to begin with, but it's too late for that.

County Trustee Bob Patterson was at the Bartlett GOP meeting last night and was a little peeved at the Commercial Appeal's spin on the debt. According to Mr. Patterson, the current debt should be viewed as being a tad over $3 billion because that is what it works out to if you include the interest payments:

Shelby County Bond Indebtedness
as of 31 July 2005
Outstanding Debt
Bonds Authorized and Issued (Schedule)
	Principal		$1,764,129,948
	Projected Interest		$627,198,610
		Total	$2,391,328,558
Refunded (Defeased) Bonds Authorized and Issued (Schedule)
	Principal		$431,855,000
	Projected Interest		$254,862,562
		Total	$686,717,562
Total Outstanding Debt			$3,078,046,120
Future Debt
Authorized but Not Issued (New)
	Schools Bond Authorized 7/25/05 $280M Issued $0M		$280,000,000
	2005A EMPC Remaining — Authorized $275M Issued $30M		$245,000,000
		Total	1 $525,000,000
Authorized Principal and Interest			$3,603,046,120
Less Defeased Escrow @ 31 July 05			2 ($452,611,960)
Net Debt Authorized			$3,150,434,160

¹ Principal only, interest is calculated when bonds are issued.

² Principal and interest through 30 June 05. Waiting on projected interest from Escrow Companies.

While it is true that the debt of Shelby County taxpayers is over three billion dollars, I will defend the Commercial Appeal (first time ever!) by saying that we don't typically include interest payments when thinking about debt. If I owe $100,000 on to a mortgage company I say I have a debt of $100,000. I don't refer to it as a commitment to pay $175,000 over the next 20 years.

On the other hand, Bob has a point. The taxpayer burden is over $3B for our current debt. And seeing as the number of taxpayers is far below the number of people (about a million), there is little doubt that my household's portion of this debt runs into the many thousands of dollars, if not tens of thousands.

I'm looking for a place to build a house and out of the county is looking more and more attractive.