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Legal counsel: supermajority needed only for large tax hikes; transcript contains inconsistent phrasing
Summary
Legislative counsel told the subcommittee the Shelby County charter requires a supermajority only if the commission increases the tax rate by 10¢ or more from the prior year; transcript also includes counsel framing the threshold as a roughly 10% change, creating a wording inconsistency commissioners asked to clarify.
Commissioner Ford asked what vote threshold the charter requires if the commission seeks to increase the tax rate after a rollback. Legislative counsel addressed the question on the record: "The charter only requires the super majority vote if you are increasing the tax rate by 10¢ or more from the previous year," counsel said. Later counsel restated the threshold as a percentage while answering, saying an increase of over 10% (which the speaker estimated at about 33.9¢ based on the current $3.39 rate) would trigger the supermajority requirement.
Commissioner Ford pressed for clarity about whether the trigger is computed from the certified rate or the prior year’s adopted rate; counsel confirmed the charter references the prior year’s rate, not the not-yet-certified figure. The exchange included an explicit admonition that returning a rolled-back rate to the prior level is legally considered a tax increase and would count toward the charter threshold.
Because the transcript records both a 10¢ formulation and a roughly 10% formulation from counsel in adjacent lines, the legal phrasing requires follow-up for exact drafting and to ensure the commission applies the correct test when considering rate action.
No formal action was taken during the meeting; counsel’s clarification will need to be captured in any motion that proposes a change to the rate later in the budget process.
