The following is an excerpt from our May issue:

By Chuck Bates

It cannot be stressed often enough that the government that gives you everything you want must by definition take everything you have to pay for it. This is certainly true in Shelby County. Daily it seems someone is crying out for more programs which in turn equal more government. Sadly those crying the loudest are often government officials and their bureaucracies who stand to gain from the new largess. While government does have some basic functions for which the people appoint it to oversee, the vast majority of the growth in government is actually perpetuated by those in power. As we will uncover there is a constant attempt to remove the power from the people and instead place it in the hands of a few non-elected bureaucrats.

Recently I had the opportunity to sit in on a meeting with Shelby County Trustee Bob Patterson as he went over some of the finer points of the financial condition of the county. What I learned was sadly not surprising to me or likely to anyone acquainted with Memphis and Shelby County politics but it was frankly appalling. Most know that the county is in extreme debt to the tune of over $2 billion. Mr. Patterson led me through the projected income and budgets for the county. He also explained the background for some numbers that simply did not add up to this economist.

Like many of the readers of this publication I manage and run a business. I see to it that we maintain our budgets and know what our anticipated costs are as well as the costs associated with specific projects. This is not the case when it comes to Shelby County government. Well at least the numbers are not always what they appear to be. Let me explain. County Commissioner Wyatt Bunker as well as some of his colleagues on the Commission have been surprised at the lack of transparency in the county budgets with which they are charged to oversee. What I have learned in the process of researching this article is that the County Commission is indeed getting a book full of numbers for their review but those numbers are greatly veiled as to just where your tax dollar is being spent.

It would seem that within the last four years, during Mayor A.C. Wharton’s administration, slick bureaucrats convinced a past commission to abandon some of their oversight authority and instead place power into the hands of the non-elected that have little or no accountability to the taxpayer. Specifically we have learned that the County Mayor’s Chief Financial Officer pushed through the County Commission a resolution that allows him to completely obscure those funds set aside for special projects by placing them in the County general fund. Previously funds set aside for capital expenditures such as specific road projects were held in an account just for the project. This of course allowed both citizens and the commissioners to see at a glance where funds really were and for what they were being used.

Now lest this sound like some grand conspiracy theory let me tell you that I have seen the official documents and financials and there must have been at least 12 or more line item accounts that while designated for specific uses and projects showed a zero balance. Instead those funds were thrown into the general fund where no one, with perhaps the exception of the Mayor and his staff, can see what is happening with these tax dollars.

Folks something is very amiss when county bureaucrats are handling your money in a way that conceals its use. Further we learned that a companion resolution, pushed by the same folks in Mayor Wharton’s office allows the Chief Financial Officer Jim Huntzicker to move funds from one account to another at his sole discretion without having to seek the authority to do so by your elected commissioners. This empowers officials to claim there are no funds for a specific project and request additional funding despite the fact the funding already existed but has simply been moved to another account.

What we have is a complete breakdown in fiscal accountability in County government. Commissioner Bunker noted, “We have a lot of fresh faces and perspectives on the County Commission now and serious questions are finally being raised as to what is happening to the people’s money. I intend to find out and attempt to keep the County government accountable to the people and reign in out of control spending.” Of course my hat is off to Commissioner Bunker and those who would follow his lead in this effort to make government smaller and more accountable to the people.

In our next issue we will continue on the politics involved and just how much your share of the county debt really is and how the county intends to collect.