$350K For Memphis Sports Stadium Part Of Tennessee’s $55.6B Proposed Budget
Image Credit: Ron Cogswell / CC
The Center Square [By Jon Styf] –
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s proposed budget, released Tuesday, includes $350 million for work on two Memphis sports stadiums – FedexForum and Liberty Stadium.
The funds are part of $684 million in proposed projects in Memphis pitched by Mayor Jim Strickland that include renovations to the FedexForum, home of the Memphis Grizzlies, along with renovations to Liberty Stadium, AutoZone Park and a new soccer stadium.
Strickland pointed to last year’s $500 million state appropriation for a new $2.1 billion Tennessee Titans stadium while making the request of Lee.
The funding was part of Lee’s $55.6 billion budget proposal for next fiscal year, including $29.9 billion in state funds, $18.8 billion from federal funds, $4.7 billion from other sources and $2 billion from higher education tuition and fees.
The budget also includes $200 million for the relocation of the Tennessee Performing Arts Center to Nashville’s East Bank in an area near the proposed $2.1 billion new Titans stadium.
“Midyear review of state tax collections and advice from economists and the State Funding Board suggest that current-year estimates of taxes collected by the Department of Revenue show strong growth,” the budget said. “The revised recurring current-year growth rate in the general fund is 7.7% compared with the actual 2021-2022 Department of Revenue collections.”
Tennessee has collected $959.9 million more than the budgeted estimate in taxes and fees through the first five months of this fiscal year.
Along with the $350 million, Strickland and Memphis have requested to increase the allowance for Shelby County to create a 5% hotel/motel tax, up from the current 3.5% tax, as well as asking the state to extend an allowance for a county car rental tax through 2053 and extend a deal where all sales taxes collected at FedExForum are kept by the Grizzlies through 2053.
About the Author: Jon Styf, The Center Square Staff Reporter – Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies. Follow Jon on Twitter @JonStyf.
Spending TN taxpayers money on sports is disgusting. Shame on Bill Lee and everyone involved.
First the headline is wrong it is 350 million not 350 thousand. Memphis has more pressing issues to to deal with. The most obvious is its outrageous crime rate. One of the highest in the country. To spend 350 million dollars of hard working taxpayer money when millions of people in Tennessee are struggling just to get by because of sky-high inflation is ludicrous. Most people in Memphis could probably care less about the sports teams that they can’t afford to go to anyways and more about the crime in their neighborhoods. It seems the politicians could care less about the the people of Memphis. The rich get richer and the average person just has to deal with more crime. Sounds fair to me. Not.
In God we trust not government or man.
Have a blessed day.