WKNO TRANSCRIPT
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (Host): The Tennessee General Assembly wrapped up this week, and for residents of Shelby County, its biggest impact may be from what didn't become law. With us to talk about that is political analyst Otis Sanford. Welcome back!
OTIS SANFORD: Thank you, Chris. Good to be with you.
BLANK: To start with, Otis, State Sen. Brent Taylor, the Republican from the Eads area, is a common thread here. His fingers were in every Shelby County pie this year, from education to immigration to taxes. And just before we talked, you actually got a chance to speak with Sen. Taylor. What did you get out of that?
SANFORD: Well, yes, I had a lengthy conversation with Sen. Taylor and Rep. Mark White in the house who was carrying the school bill. They were just interested, and wanted to explain what happened, generally, on a lot of these measures. And the fact that a lot of it did not result in a bill that was passed: they wanted to talk about the coordination that they are still trying to make to affect some legislation that does impact Memphis and Shelby County.
BLANK: Right, and as you mentioned, this was the school takeover bill. Mark White had one in the house. Brent Taylor sponsored one in the Senate. They couldn't get them merged at the last minute. What does this mean for the school district, at least until next year?
SANFORD: Those bills are still very much alive. They decided to wait on this forensic audit -- a $6 million forensic audit that's going to be done throughout the rest of 2025 -- and the results of that audit will dictate how they will proceed on this at the next legislative session, which starts in January. But they insist that while both bills passed with wide margins in the House and Senate, they're going to wait on the audit.
BLANK: But no sense that they'll drop this if the Memphis-Shelby County Schools Board, I guess, cleans up their act in the next year?
SANFORD: Well, I asked them about that. And the indication I got, Chris, was that they don't think that this board has the expertise or the experience to do what needs to be done in terms of right-sizing the system, dealing with school buildings. But I'll be very honest with you, they did say that the debacle involving the dismissal of Superintendent Marie Feagins did push this to the front burner where the legislature was concerned, because there were a lot of people in Memphis who were asking them to do something about the school system.
BLANK: We started this session with Sen. Taylor's promise to oust Shelby County District Attorney General Steve Mulroy. And for a time, House and Senate leaders supported that. But in the end, it all fizzled out. What happened there?
SANFORD: Behind the scenes, there were some legislators who were just not convinced that they needed to be that drastic, and they were listening to claims, including claims from Mulroy himself, that this was a partisan effort to oust the duly elected District Attorney. So, the thing that they decided on at the end was to pass a resolution urging the Supreme Court to form a committee to look into not just Mulroy, but two other district attorneys, one from Middle Tennessee, one from East Tennessee. I considered it a save-face measure, here. But Sen. Taylor is saying that this was their effort to ensure that it was not a partisan witch hunt.
BLANK: Did he explain to you, though, why he is still sticking with this idea that Mulroy needs to be removed?
SANFORD: He just personally believes that Mulroy has not done the job effectively enough. But he's willing to live with whatever decisions the Supreme Court committee decides. At the very least, if nothing comes out of this other than, maybe, some legislation that creates more oversight to what district attorneys are doing, he said he will be happy with that. But I reminded him: you went to Nashville almost promising to get rid of Steve Mulroy. And that fell flat.
BLANK: Sen. Taylor also tried to help Memphis developers get around local taxes by letting them cut incentive deals, or PILOT deals, directly with the state. This bill, too, is on pause, reportedly because Taylor finally talked to Mayor Paul Young about it and how it could affect the city. You know, many lawmakers do have bills fail for various reasons, but I wonder: when you talked to Sen. Taylor, did you see a theme in all of this?
SANFORD: What I got out of this, Chris, was -- and with all due respect to Sen. Taylor-- I think he took on some very big endeavors here. But the way he talked about them at the beginning of the legislative session, he gave the impression that he was going to ramrod them through. He bit off a lot to start the session, and a lot of it just did not come to fruition.
