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VOL. 133 | NO. 112 | Tuesday, June 5, 2018
City Council Faces Final Vote on Tax Rate
By Bill Dries
Memphis City Council members could start to wrap up the budget season Tuesday, June 5, with third and final-reading votes on the city property tax rate and a resolution approving the city’s capital budget.
A vote on the city’s operating budget on June 19 council before the July 1 start of the new fiscal year would close out the budget season. Final approval on Tuesday of Mayor Jim Strickland’s proposed $3.19 property tax rate would rule out any large changes to the operating budget.
The proposed tax rate would be an eight-cent drop from the current rate of $3.27. The drop would account for an $8 million windfall city government got in the 2017 reappraisal. The lower tax rate would account for an over-estimated number of appeals of property values the city estimated would result from the countywide property reappraisal.

City Council members are scheduled to take a final vote Tuesday on a new city property tax rate on the way to finalizing the budget later this month. (Daily News File/Andrew J. Breig)
Strickland’s estimate is that a seven-cent drop should balance the windfall. He included another penny reduction as an actual tax-rate decrease.
The council also takes a final vote Tuesday on a referendum ordinance for the Nov. 6 ballot that, if approved by voters, would require council approval of contracts made by the city administration.
The council meets at 3:30 p.m. at City Hall, 125 N. Main St. Follow the meeting @tdnpols, www.twitter.com/tdnpols, for live coverage and updates from the committee sessions earlier in the day.
At an 8:45 a.m. committee session, council members will discuss a proposal to raise the pay of part-time city employees to a minimum of $15 an hour.
In planning and development matters, the council votes Tuesday on the new One Beale planned development by Carlisle Corp. The first phase of the project includes development to the east of the original Beale Street and Riverside Drive site with buildings that are seven to nine stories tall at the most. The council also votes on closing Wagner Place north of Pontotoc as part of the development.
The council is also expected to set a June 19 public hearing and vote on several projects, including a remote trailer parking lot for the Amazon fulfillment center at 3588 E. Holmes Road, east of Tchulahoma, a new and used tire business at 975 N. Germantown Parkway on land currently zoned residential urban, and a construction demolition landfill by Blaylock and Brown Construction Inc. for the south side of Shelby Oaks Drive east of Summer Avenue.