WKNO TRANSCRIPT
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (Host): Several bills important to Shelby County residents were discussed in the Tennessee General Assembly this week. With us to talk about two of them is political analyst Otis Sanford. Welcome back.
OTIS SANFORD: Thank you, Chris. Thank you for having me.
BLANK: As you know, Otis, our county jail is in a derelict state and well above capacity. We need a new jail. But the price tag is over a billion dollars. State government is trying to help by allowing us to raise sales taxes on ourselves. This extra penny would bring the county sales tax to nearly 11 cents on the dollar. And here at the start of Trump's trade war, we could be looking at economic hardships. Are voters going to accept this tax increase if it comes up for a referendum?
SANFORD: Well, I think it'll be a very tough sell, Chris. But I do think we need to have the conversation. And so I do hope that the legislature passes the bill that allows the county commission to pass it as well, and then put it to a referendum vote. We need to have that opportunity. The county jail has lost its luster since it opened back in the early 1980s.
BLANK: Our criminal justice issues are multifaceted. On one hand, local Republican lawmakers pushed for bail reform, denying bail for suspects of violent crimes. Many people are in favor of that, but our courts are also slow, and there's a huge backlog of murder cases. The jail is more crowded because of it. It did not help that state lawmakers believe Shelby County had too many criminal court judges and then removed two of them. So looking at the overall criminal justice problem here, where does the buck stop? Is it state government, county government or the people of Shelby County?
SANFORD: Well, I think it's a little bit of all three. But certainly, when we talk about the policies, you have to look first at state government. You have to look at the really wrong-headed decision to take away judges from Shelby County, especially a criminal court judge, given our criminal case backlog. But I think all three have to sort of look at themselves in the mirror and ask themselves, "what can we do to make this situation better?"
BLANK: If we don't raise taxes, what happens to the jail? Is there, like, another funding source?
SANFORD: Well, I don't know what the other source of funding is. I think it's been shown now that we do need a new jail. It is a hazard down there. And so when you have both Democrats and Republicans at the state level, at the local level, who are agreeing that we need to have this, then we're looking at a very dire situation here where the federal government may have to come in and either do something or, at least, say something about it. And I understand a tax increase -- especially sales tax increases -- are pretty regressive and it hurts poorer people than it hurts those of means. But it's going to be temporary, if you believe what the politicians are saying. It won't last forever and I think it needs to happen.
BLANK: Moving on to the ongoing political feud between State Sen. Brent Taylor and Shelby County District Attorney General Steve Mulroy. Sen. Taylor had hoped he could get the state legislature to just go ahead and oust Mulroy. Oddly enough, that didn't work. So Taylor is trying a new approach. He and Republican leaders want the state Supreme Court to investigate Mulroy with a panel of experts. And to make it appear less partisan, they would investigate two other state DAs as well. So, the first question: is this less partisan?
SANFORD: Chris, this is nothing but a farce. Proof positive that Brent Taylor had no basis, first of all, to go after Mulroy to try to oust him and overturn the will of the voters. And then [Taylor] learned once the legislature came into session that a lot of his colleagues on the Republican side had no appetite for trying to oust someone with as flimsy charges as Taylor was offering here. And so now they're coming up with this ridiculous notion of asking the Supreme Court to look into this, and it is a joke to link Mulroy in with these other two DAs.
BLANK: Right, the other two DAs roped into Taylor's ouster plan are a Davidson County Democrat involved in an eavesdropping scandal and a Warren County Republican charged with felony reckless endangerment for shooting a gun in public and nearly hitting a child. So, what has Mulroy done?
SANFORD: Mulroy has been a choir boy compared to those other two. And it is an absolute joke to try to loop him in to these other two far more serious allegations. I expect that the Supreme Court will just put this on a table somewhere and they'll just let it try to just drift away. But the problem for Brent Taylor is he staked a lot of his political capital on getting rid of Mulroy. And when this fails, it's going to be an utter embarrassment for him and I think it does political damage to his future.
