Tennessee residents who wanted to turn back the clock on annexations appear to be out of luck.
A Senate panel voted Wednesday to hold a controversial de-annexation plan for further study — likely killing its chances until next year.
The measure, House Bill 779, sought to reverse several annexations made by Tennessee cities over the past two decades.
Support was strongest in neighborhoods just inside the city limits of Chattanooga and Memphis. Residents there say they were forced into those cities and haven't been given adequate services, including the police and fire protection they need, in some cases.
Government officials disputed those claims, and they were joined by business groups. Phil Trenary, president of the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce, says de-annexation would create financial havoc for Tennessee cities because they would lose taxpayers in those annexed areas.
"Businesses do not like uncertainty," he said after Wednesday's vote, "and this really casts a tremendous amount of doubt on the future."
Trenary says the biggest risk would have been a spike in local tax rates that could have driven businesses to neighboring states, an outcome that he says would have hurt the entire state.
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