WKNO TRANSCRIPT
CHRISTOPHER BLANK (Host): Shelby County government has some big-ticket spending items on its long-term agenda. Between a jail, hospital, and schools, billions of dollars are being talked about. But last week, the Tennessee Comptroller's Office threw a wet blanket on short-term spending. For the first time, a Tennessee County has been banned from accessing bonds or borrowing money. Mike Carpenter, Principal with Carpenter Civic Strategies and a former county commissioner is with us to talk about that. Thanks for your time.
MIKE CARPENTER: Thank you.
BLANK: Well, let's start with what this decision means. How will that impact the county in the short term?
CARPENTER: Well, I think the first thing to know is that it's embarrassing. But the other thing is it's not a fiscal crisis, meaning that all of the money that has been obligated to this point, the debt that has been issued, and those projects where debt was issued last year will continue on. The question is, moving forward: the county cannot issue debt until the comptroller approves their budget.
BLANK: Well, this did not come out of the blue. Comptroller Jason Mumpower warned the county last year that the state had some very specific requirements that needed to be met. So, how did Shelby County fall short?
CARPENTER: Well, I think that remains to be seen, but that's why it's embarrassing. Some of these requests go back as far as 2022. And so, the fact that it wasn't done is why this is unfortunate. But I think we don't quite know yet where the breakdown was, but there was plenty of lead time to address the situation.
BLANK: Part of the county budget is the Memphis-Shelby County Schools District. And that could be a whole separate conversation, but suffice to say the school board got itself audited. And I wonder how that fits into this overall money mix.
CARPENTER: One of the main requests from the comptroller to the county was to provide more detail -- a line item detail -- of the county school budget. You know, if the audit turns up something that could have been recognized by the comptroller and his staff in that detail that he requested, he's going to say, "Aha, I told you so. This is why I needed it, so that we could could dig deeper and we could have headed some of this off." But definitely, it creates an opportunity for the comptroller to sort of slap the wrist of Shelby County government again.
BLANK: Well, one last thought on this issue, Mike. Politics does seem to come up whenever state government sanctions local government. Is there any evidence of political interference here?
CARPENTER: Well, I'll say that I don't have any evidence, but I'll say that based on experience and my gut, it tells me that that played into it somewhat. As you pointed out, the comptroller has made the case for a number of years that he needs this information. He expects to get this information. But I think that the timing is interesting and the very fact that Mayor Harris has been one of the most outspoken officials in the community about the National Guard coming. He's been and sort of leading the charge on that. So, I think it's not unreasonable to think that may have played into it somewhat.
BLANK: You bring up the National Guard. Let's talk for just a second about a commentary that you wrote in USA Today about the politics of that. One thing you pointed out that really hasn't been discussed much here locally and that is how this deployment plays into the governor's race. U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn is a candidate for governor. She's also a proud supporter of this task force. So, can you elaborate on the Trump-Blackburn connection here?
CARPENTER: Sen. Blackburn is very close to President Trump. She was on the short list for his vice president on two different occasions, and she's continued to remain close to him, remain an ardent supporter of his. So one of the things that happens here is that this allows him to do her a favor. And I'm not saying it's the only motivation for him. But what it does is allows him to put her front and center leading the charge on this task force, which gives her a lot of attention, which shows her taking care of an important issue in this part of the state without actually having to endorse her at this point. And so, I do think it plays into it a great deal.
BLANK: Well, finally, Attorney General Pam Bondi was here last week. One statement she made— that so much as touching a federal agent would be cause for arrest— that seemed aimed more at activists and protesters rather than criminals. Do you think that they anticipated more push back here in a city known for activism, and why hasn't there been more of that?
CARPENTER: I think there are a couple of things that I could point to and it may be even more complex. But one is about leadership. In a state like Illinois where you have Gov. Pritzker at the helm really pushing back hard on the administration, you're getting a lot more activism as well as the Chicago City Mayor. In our situation, you have a governor who's saying come on in. And because so much power for local government comes from the state, you have Mayor Young saying, "Hey, you know, I don't like it, but there's not much I can do about it. And so I'm going to try to cooperate to the extent that I can and support this surge." Also, I think in terms of one of the most outspoken and organized leaders in the past has been General Sessions Court Clerk Tami Sawyer, who's now an elected official and got a big office to run. And while she's been outspoken on this, [she] is not out in the street, so to speak, organizing opposition. And so, I think that there is maybe a void in leadership right now.