Seven candidates are vying for the Democratic nomination for Shelby County mayor. MLK50: Justice Through Journalism has reached out to each of them with your questions.
MLK50 recently surveyed Shelby County residents to learn your top questions for the candidates. We shared the most commonly asked questions with the candidates to get their responses. The public had questions on everything from public transit to the Memphis Safe Task Force to the county’s property tax rate.
The Democratic candidates for county mayor are:
Melvin Burgess, currently Shelby County’s assessor of property. Burgess, an accountant, previously served two terms on the Shelby County Board of Commissioners.
Harold Collins, currently Shelby County’s chief administrative officer. Collins previously worked on the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission, as special assistant to the Shelby County District Attorney General and served two terms as a Memphis city councilman.
Marie N. Feagins, former Memphis-Shelby County Schools superintendent, previously worked at Detroit Public Schools as chief of leadership and high schools. Feagins is currently suing Memphis-Shelby County Schools over her firing as superintendent in 2025.
Heidi Kuhn, currently Shelby County’s criminal court clerk, Kuhn has previously held other roles with the county, including as executive director of the Crime Victims Center, deputy director of community services and lead strategist to the Shelby County sheriff.
Mickell M. Lowery, currently a Shelby County commissioner, is also managing director of sales at FedEx, where he’s held multiple roles in more than two decades at the company.
Rusty Qualls, owner of Allure Tax Solutions LLC., has also worked in supply chain and logistics management.
JB Smiley Jr., currently a Memphis city councilman, is an attorney who founded Smiley & Associates PLLC.
The primary is May 5, and early voting starts April 15.
The winner of the Democratic primary will face Republican John DeBerry Jr., a pastor, former state representative and advisor to Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee. The general election is August 6, with early voting starting July 17.
Candidate responses are arranged alphabetically by last name according to topic. They have been edited for length and clarity.
Use the buttons below to navigate to a specific question.
Q: As mayor, how would you work to reduce inequality and increase opportunities for low-to-no-income residents?
Burgess: As assessor of property, my philosophy is, “We value people over property.” True economic mobility requires stopping corporate giveaways that don’t guarantee returns for our neighborhoods. I will institute strict community benefit agreements for businesses receiving public incentives and aggressively audit them. If corporations break promises to create good-paying jobs for residents, we will use clawback provisions to reclaim public dollars and reinvest them into our communities.
Additionally, I will create a temporary employment labor program for unemployed, underemployed and re-entry populations to build a workforce dedicated to solving our county’s blight concerns while providing crucial income and skills.
Collins: As the county’s chief administrative officer, we are increasing opportunities for low-to-no-income residents by doing several initiatives. First, we are investing in our infrastructure to increase the amount of small and women-owned businesses to encourage them to engage in the project bidding process.
Second, we are using our procurement department to break large contracts up so that businesses can secure the proper bonding or insurance to do these projects. Finally, through our planning and development division, we are making sure families or homeowners get the opportunity to get the necessary training to manage, budget and prepare for homeownership. This division provides low-interest loans or forgivable loans after a certain period of time.
Feagins: To address inequality, I will strengthen partnerships with local education institutions to expand opportunities for residents to gain new skills, complete their GED, and/or upskill to qualify for meaningful employment opportunities. I will also champion the “Literacy to Life Pathway,” partnering with the business community to create 10,000 paid jobs and internships for youth and young adults over four summers to build their skills and income.
To further boost economic mobility, my administration will require county infrastructure contractors to hire local first, pay a living wage, and dedicate a percentage of contracts to youth hiring. My administration will explore “Level Up” Guaranteed Income Initiative, a pilot program providing a monthly stipend to qualifying unemployed/underemployed households in targeted ZIP codes.
Finally, I will expand awareness of Neighborhood Opportunity Zones to direct county-funded microgrants and tax incentives directly into distressed ZIP codes.
Kuhn: We would continue the work we started in the Criminal Court Clerk’s Office, where we focused on providing expungements to residents and helping them turn their life fortunes around for a fresh start. Many of those who received expungements were from lower-income situations, and there are many stories of those who were helped tremendously by our efforts to clear their records and give them a new direction.
We also want to ensure that we are providing career opportunities, not just jobs. We can achieve this within my plan to provide empowerment zones that create opportunities within neighborhoods, which will revitalize areas that have lost their vitality. I also believe that leading by example is important, like when I pushed to increase pay for staff in the clerk’s office, and we worked to get the county government to raise pay for hourly workers to set the example that what is good for the government must be good for the community.
Lowery: Our government has to be proactive, not reactive. I started loading boxes on a warehouse floor. I worked my way up, but not everyone is afforded those same opportunities, especially now with so many residents unemployed and underemployed. I’ve met with many people who feel like they can’t get ahead regardless of what they do. Those conversations drive everything I want to do as mayor.
Universal pre-kindergarten is my day-one priority. When a child gets a strong start, their whole family moves forward. Parents can get back to work without the worry of expensive childcare bills. Every graduate should have a path to a living-wage career through vocational training and apprenticeships, available in every school, not just select areas. We need county contracts reaching minority and women-owned businesses so wealth stays in our communities. Giving everyone the same thing isn’t enough. We have to invest where the need is greatest.
Qualls: We will align workforce development, economic investment and access to services around one goal: upward mobility. That means connecting residents to living-wage jobs, scaling skills training tied to employer demand and ensuring every neighborhood has a clear pathway to opportunity.
Smiley: My administration will focus on three things: pathways to homeownership and entrepreneurship, pathways to income and pathways to stability. My platform calls for a small business accelerator targeted at businesses stuck in survival mode or trying to get off the ground, a countywide vocational and skills training pipeline, a paid experience and career launch initiative and a talent return and retention initiative to connect residents to jobs in high-demand sectors. I want Shelby County to use public policy to close the wealth gap.
For residents with little or no income, that means we cannot treat public assistance, workforce development, transportation, housing and re-entry as separate silos. They have to work together. My policies connect training to employers, transit to job corridors and re-entry to guaranteed work opportunities. I would also prioritize wraparound services like mental health access, evening nutrition support and targeted health access, because opportunity means very little if a family is one crisis away from falling apart.
Q: How should the county increase resources such as downpayment assistance and housing rehabilitation programs to support aspiring and existing low-income home owners?
Burgess: Shelby County owns over 8,000 blighted properties in our land bank. This is unacceptable during a severe housing crisis. We must unlock these properties, partner with neighborhood development corporations and turn them into affordable housing and rehabilitation opportunities. Many blighted properties are simply tax-delinquent homes owned by struggling residents.
As mayor, I will ensure fully-funded tax relief options, tax freezes, and abatements are easily accessible to keep low-income legacy homeowners in their houses. I will heavily scrutinize out-of-town investment firms that exploit renters and buy up neighborhoods. I tackled the appraisal gap directly in Orange Mound, and I will bring that same fight for housing equity to the mayor’s office.
Collins: The county again, through our division of planning and development, as well as the division of community services, provides resources to residents, whether through training, low-interest and forgivable loans to residents. We also, this year, created our homestead program whereby potential homeowners through builders and developers in the new high school area of North Memphis can work to purchase new homes to help populate the new school.
Feagins: First, we’ll be more strategic with our resources and bring in new partners. We will explore establishing a dedicated housing fund that pulls together federal dollars like HOME and CDBG with a portion of local revenues tied to growth and development, creating a consistent pool of funding instead of year-to-year uncertainty.
Second, downpayment assistance should be structured as forgivable loans so families can get into homes now and build equity. Over time, those funds can be recycled to help the next buyer. We should also expand home repair and rehabilitation programs so people can stay in their homes.
Third, we should leverage partnerships with banks, employers and nonprofits. By matching county dollars with private and philanthropic investment, we can reach more families.
Finally, we must make these programs more accessible with a streamlined application process, faster approvals and clear eligibility requirements. If we do this, we help individuals while stabilizing neighborhoods, increasing homeownership and building long-term wealth.
Kuhn: I would like to allocate some of the opioid abatement funding that the county will receive to provide forgivable loans to individuals for down payment assistance to increase the opportunity for more Shelby County citizens to participate in the American Dream of owning their own home. One of the pillars of generational wealth is owning your own home. We would choose strategic areas of Memphis and Shelby County that have traditionally been underserved with homeownership to offer down payment assistance through a 2-million-dollar-a-year forgivable loan housing fund, which would allocate $5,000 to targeted Shelby County citizens for down payment assistance on a home in that targeted area.
Lowery: We’re 30,000 units short on affordable housing, and the programs we have aren’t reaching enough people. As the former chairman of the Memphis Housing Authority, I’ve seen where the system breaks down and who gets left waiting. We should be creating homeowners who are ready to own, not generations of renters making corporations richer because those corporations are buying up too many homes in our county.
I’ll push to partner with local banks to create homeownership zones where the county provides matching funds for low-income buyers. I want to expand rehab programs that help seniors and longtime homeowners with essentials like a new roof, so they’re not forced out of their homes. And I’ll work to grow our Housing Trust Fund through federal grants and private investment. Too many people qualify for help and never receive it because the system is too hard to navigate, and people don’t even know what’s available. Less red tape, more keys in doors.
Qualls: We will treat homeownership as a core wealth-building strategy. I will scale downpayment assistance and rehabilitation programs by leveraging federal funding, private capital and nonprofit partnerships to expand access and stabilize communities.
Smiley: We must stop thinking about homeownership only as a mortgage or affordability question. It is also a land, property rehab, financing, neighborhood revitalization and wealth gap question. Shelby County already has down payment assistance and housing rehabilitation structures on the books. I would expand those tools by pairing them with my proposed County-Backed Equity Path Homeownership initiative, which uses distressed or tax-abated properties to partner with local developers and gives families a lease-to-equity or shared-equity path where their monthly payments build ownership.
I would also push for a more aggressive county housing strategy: expand downpayment assistance, scale housing rehabilitation, use the Land Bank more strategically and tie EDGE housing development incentives to ownership outcomes. Incentives should prioritize for-sale affordable housing, long-term affordability covenants and local hiring.
For existing low-income homeowners, housing rehab should be treated as an anti-displacement policy. I would expand Shelby County’s current program and target it block-by-block in vulnerable neighborhoods.
Q: What is your position on the Memphis Safe Task Force, and how would you further that position as mayor?
Burgess: Public safety is our number one issue. I understand the Memphis Safe Task Force is here, and I’m willing to work with any mechanisms offered by federal or state initiatives that may improve public safety for Shelby Countians, but imported task forces are not a permanent solution. We cannot simply arrest our way out of the crime crisis affecting our county.
As mayor, I will support solutions that attack root causes of crime by providing tangible opportunities: improving our neighborhoods, investing in education and bringing good-paying jobs to Shelby County. To achieve this, we must improve our relationships with Nashville and Washington, D.C. We need state and federal partnerships that will support and fund our local, community-driven solutions, rather than imposing top-down mandates that may not consider all of our unique needs. We must empower our neighborhoods with the resources they need to thrive and prevent crime from taking root in the first place.
Collins: My position on the Memphis Safe Task Force has been consistent with our current county mayor’s administration’s position. We DO NOT agree with the deployment of the National Guard on the streets of Shelby County. We do agree that the increased support from federal law enforcement agencies working alongside our local police department and the sheriff department is warranted. As county mayor, I will continue to authorize our Emergency Management and Homeland Security Department to continue our efforts to work with those agencies.
Feagins: I have noticed that the people most closely affected by violence, over-policing, and neighborhood instability have too often not been fully brought to the table to help shape and inform the work of the Memphis Safe Task Force. If we are serious about real safety that outlasts temporary fixes, then the voices of residents, youth, survivors of violence, faith leaders, and grassroots organizations must be central to the strategy, not an afterthought.
As mayor, I will launch Safe Shelby 365, a year-round collaborative partnership with regular cross-agency huddles between the Health Department, law enforcement, schools, violence interrupters, community, business, and neighborhood leaders to address problems in real time, countywide.
In my first 100 days, I will release a Countywide Community Safety Framework because true public safety is prevention, intervention and detention with a requirement of responsible leadership committed to addressing the root causes of harm while enforcing consequences.
Kuhn: I have maintained a good working relationship with law enforcement within Shelby County and have applauded their efforts to keep us safe, but the lack of transparency from the task force has unfortunately filtered down to other enforcement agencies. We must have a handle on what their operations are and demand accountability and respect for our residents if they are to remain here in Shelby County. We are able to take care of ourselves and fix the issues that we have all witnessed throughout the years, with no better example than the precipitous drop in all crime levels over the 18 months prior to the arrival of the Memphis Safe Task Force.
My administration will be focused on local law enforcement and seeking to bridge the gaps we have between the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office and Memphis police, as well as working with the other municipalities‘ law enforcement agencies to make Shelby County safe for all of its residents.
Lowery: I support law enforcement agencies working together to stop violent crime, but the Memphis Safe Task Force, as it currently operates, feels more like an occupation than a partnership. When outside agencies come into our neighborhoods without local oversight or clear accountability, it doesn’t build safety. It builds fear. Overpolicing does not provide real solutions.
No agency, local or federal, is above the law or beyond the reach of local oversight. As mayor, I’ll demand transparency from any agency in Shelby County. I also know enforcement alone won’t make us safer. We have to invest in what actually prevents violence: economic opportunity, mental health support, conflict resolution training starting in elementary school and real career pathways that pay above minimum wage. Public safety has to be rooted in our community. It can’t be imposed from the outside. You build real safety through trust, and trust comes through relationships.
Qualls: Public safety must be effective, accountable, and trusted. I support a coordinated, data-driven approach that targets violent crime, invests in prevention and ensures transparency. As mayor, I will demand measurable results and alignment across all agencies.
Smiley: I am on the record stating that ICE and the National Guard should not be a part of the Memphis Safe Task Force. I support crime-fighting carried out by law enforcement agencies. Reducing crime should include group violence intervention and stronger law-enforcement coordination. My platform calls for breaking down jurisdictional barriers, improving interoperability across agencies and building a countywide response structure.
As mayor, I will bring city, county, state and federal partners together around a shared operating framework: common intelligence-sharing rules, faster emergency coordination, focused intervention and measurable goals that the public can track. I call this eliminating the imaginary line between jurisdictions.
At the same time, public safety has to include dignity and prevention. That is why my platform pairs enforcement with re-entry, job pipelines and humane corrections. Finally, when leaders in Washington or Nashville cross the line and threaten the rights of our citizens, I will sue them.
Q: Will you support and advocate for county funding to the (city-operated) Memphis Area Transit Authority? Why or why not?
Burgess: Yes. You cannot talk about economic mobility or reducing inequality without talking about transit. Low-to-no-income residents cannot access the jobs, health care, or educational opportunities we are trying to create if they cannot reliably get to them. While MATA is historically a city-funded agency, its success is a county-wide economic imperative. I will advocate for a comprehensive, regional transit strategy and support county investments, provided there is strict accountability and transparency to ensure those dollars directly improve route frequency and reliability for the working people who depend on it.
Collins: As county mayor, I will continue to advocate for funding for Memphis Area Transit Authority. Our administration worked with the commission to pass legislation to provide continual funding for MATA, however that funding was contingent upon having a seat on the MATA Board. The City of Memphis determined they did not want the funding, nor wanted the county to have a board seat.
Feagins: I will support transit improvements by requesting a formal evaluation (or current results) of MATA’s capital needs, bus fleet modernization and paratransit failures in my first 100 days. Furthermore, I would explore “901-RIDE” and/or the expansion of the current shuttle network to work alongside MATA to fill critical service gaps such as connecting shift-workers to logistics hubs, aging population to doctor’s visits and increasing student routes for children living in walking distance of school, yet feel unsafe. To fund 901-RIDE without solely relying on county funds, I will advocate for a mix of federal transit grants, corporate sponsorships and employer-co-funded workforce route contracts.
Kuhn: Having a well-run regional transportation system is a benefit to the continued growth of Shelby County, and bringing Shelby County government into the fold helps all tides to rise. However, any involvement by the Shelby County government must allow us to be part of the decision-making process; we cannot be silent investors in a system that is set to run along our streets and roads.
This is not just an economic issue but also a safety issue. We have many people in our county that work miles away from where they live, and the only efficient way they can travel to work is via car. Having more cars puts more wear and tear on our roads, costing us more money, and puts more people at risk from those who do not take the privilege of operating a vehicle safely seriously. Any way that we can devise that will help save lives can only help us build and thrive as a community.
Lowery: Yes. I’m a working dad with three kids. I know what it costs to keep a car running, and I know families who are one breakdown away from losing a job. When transit doesn’t work, people can’t get to work. In a major city, public transportation is a necessity, not a luxury.
As mayor, I’ll push to align MATA routes with the job centers where people actually need to go and get them there faster. Riders shouldn’t have to leave home two or three hours early for what would normally be a 15-minute drive. I’ll advocate for a regional model that shares the cost fairly and work to secure federal and state funds to expand service into neighborhoods that have been cut off from opportunity for too long. A lack of transportation should never stand between someone and their paycheck. Investing in transit is investing in the people who keep this county running.
Qualls: Yes. Transit is essential infrastructure that connects people to jobs, education and health care. Supporting it strengthens access to opportunity and drives economic growth.
Smiley: Yes, but not as a blank check for a broken structure. I’ll support county participation in transit because transit is not just a Memphis issue; it is a countywide economic opportunity issue. My policy platform calls for creating a Regional Transit Authority, using MATA’s current assets as a foundation, bringing municipalities into a unified structure and pursuing a federal-funding-first strategy through the Federal Transit Administration, the U.S. Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act programs.
I would support transit funding, but tie it to reform, regional buy-in and measurable outcomes. Transit should connect people to jobs, health care, education and housing. It should also be designed around the actual geography of opportunity in Shelby County, including mobility hubs, high-frequency connectors and bus rapid transit corridors.
Shelby County has funded transit before, including a county sustainability plan aimed at generating dedicated support for MATA. My administration would build on that idea with stronger governance and a regional model so taxpayers can see how service improves and how federal dollars are leveraged.
Q: 201 Poplar is overcrowded and unsafe. How would you address these problems? How will you pay for your proposed solution?
Burgess: The conditions at 201 Poplar are unacceptable — unsafe for the incarcerated population and the staff. We must fund and build a new Shelby County Jail. A modern facility is required to meet constitutional housing needs, provide proper mental health and rehabilitation resources and ensure safety. To pay for it without breaking the backs of taxpayers, we must conduct a top-to-bottom audit of county spending, aggressively pursue state and federal infrastructure grants and stop bleeding revenue through unchecked corporate tax incentives.
Collins: Yes, our Shelby County Jail is overcrowded and unsafe. I would address these problems by first making sure people housed in our jail SHOULD be there. We know one-third of the population are there as a result of chemical dependency or mental health emergencies. We must divert them from the jail. Shelby County is building a new mental health facility due to open in December 2026 for that purpose. Funding will be included in the fiscal year 2027 budget going forward.
Second, we should make sure that the sheriff deputies entrusted with the care of the detainees are trained properly and are trained in a continuous manner. Those training dollars are incorporated in the sheriff’s budget, and if more is needed, I will work with the commission to secure them.
Feagins: Most importantly, I will establish a supportive relationship with the new sheriff that includes consistent and constant communication and transparency. Collaboratively, we will work to address current conditions by immediately requesting a comprehensive facility audit and establishing a cross-agency case-flow team (including the district attorney, public defender, and the courts) to eliminate bottlenecks driving overcrowding. I will also expand diversion programs to prevent long stays for non-violent individuals.
To pay for these solutions, my administration will engage with federal partners for funding support while reviewing opportunities to reallocate county funds saved from reduced detention times, lower overtime costs, elimination of waste and more efficient contract spending.
Kuhn: No one wants a jail in their backyard, and we do not have a billion dollars to build a brand-new jail and criminal justice complex. We cannot continue to operate the jail at 201 in the manner we are doing today. Unsafe and inhumane conditions exist in the current jail.
My idea is to combine some of the county Division of Corrections with the jail. We currently care for state inmates while being reimbursed $41 dollars a day. That is the lowest reimbursement rate in the state and forces the county to subsidize corrections to the tune of $10 million – $20 million each year. We should make the state take back state felony inmates and convert some of the corrections facilities into a jail. We should utilize technology to speed the court process like we did during COVID-19. The savings from these strategies could, over time, pay for renovations of corrections to become the jail.
Lowery: The crisis at 201 Poplar has been happening for too long, and real accountability needs to follow. Our neighbors are dying in that building. A new building takes time, and we cannot wait on construction to start saving lives.
I’ve already put forth legislation to restore the two courts the state took from us so we can process cases faster and reduce overcrowding. I’ll hold our medical providers accountable and bring in additional services for people in custody. WellPath, our jail health care provider, is facing national bankruptcy and local scrutiny over neglect. People deserve access to their medications and basic health care, and it’s clear we need other provider options.
Long-term, I support building a modern facility at the penal farm site focused on rehabilitation, mental health care and job training. The space is already there, paid for through municipal bonds and state capital grants. Closing 201 Poplar also opens up prime downtown real estate for tax-generating development.
Qualls: We will reduce overcrowding through smarter justice strategies, including alternatives for nonviolent offenders, while modernizing facilities to ensure safety and dignity. Funding will come from reallocation, state partnerships and disciplined capital planning.
Smiley: 201 Poplar requires urgency, honesty and structural change. Corrections must be adequately resourced, intake times reduced, medical services strengthened and funding secured either for major improvements or for a new jail.
My first move would be a 100-day action plan: allocate emergency funding for increased staffing stabilization, conduct an outside operational review, develop a medical-services integration plan with the health department and help fast-track intake/process reforms. Second, I would separate short-term life-safety fixes from the long-term capital question. If the facts show that major renovation is throwing good money after bad, then Shelby County must prepare for a replacement strategy.
To pay for it, identify what can be covered through reallocation, what requires county bonding and what can be matched through state or federal support. I would also advocate for reducing jail pressure through faster case processing, alternatives where lawful and appropriate and a real re-entry system that lowers churn.
Q: Shelby County faces multibillion-dollar decisions about aging facilities like schools, the hospital and the jail. How would you rank your top three capital priorities for the next decade? How would you pay for them without destabilizing the county budget? Which projects would you delay to focus on your priorities?
Burgess: 1. Public Safety (New jail): We face severe legal and moral liabilities with 201 Poplar that we can no longer ignore. 2. Education (MSCS infrastructure): I will work with the state to fix our per-pupil allocation so we aren’t shortchanged. We must also work with the school board on consolidating underutilized schools to free up capital. 3. Health care (Regional One): Our safety-net hospital is vital and requires robust state-level partnership to modernize.
To pay for these, we will leverage state and federal partnerships, demand fair funding from Nashville and reform local PILOT programs. I would delay non-essential county administrative capital projects and municipal infrastructure expansions that do not directly serve public safety, education and public health.
Collins: As mayor, my top goal regarding infrastructure would be Regional One Health. By state law, the county is responsible for public health in our community, and building this hospital will ensure that our residents and those within 150 miles will have a hospital they can depend on.
Second would be our schools. We are building the first new high school within the Memphis city limits in 60 years. This will allow our students to learn in an environment that will challenge them intellectually and is comparable to their counterparts in other county municipalities. We also intend to build a second school in the east region.
Lastly, would be the jail. The sheriff receives over $35 million each year for maintenance and operations. Those funds should be used to repair the jail each year. The top two initiatives are being paid for through the wheel-tax. There would be no destabilizing the county’s budget.
Feagins: In my first 100 days, I will perform a line-by-line analysis of the overall budget and capital improvement plan based on safety, impact and fiscal constraints to develop a comprehensive plan that reflects timeline (phased approach), resource allocation and expected outcomes for Shelby County.
My top priorities include ensuring schools are modernized, supporting Regional One’s capital milestones and addressing the 201 Poplar facility after a facilities audit is satisfactorily completed. To garner additional funds, I will explore public-private partnership opportunities and advocate for “Responsible Gaming” (casinos) at the state level to generate new revenue streams for education and infrastructure while publishing a transparent debt capacity analysis.
Kuhn: As far as priorities, it would be schools, then hospital, then jail. While the office of mayor does not directly set standards for education, we do get a say in how to fund the development and maintenance of our schools. Currently, there are some desperate situations in our schools, especially where it comes to deferred maintenance. Our children deserve to be a priority.
The Regional One hospital is the next priority, because a good portion of the heavy lifting has already begun. The final piece of the building of Regional One will be to merge with UTHSC (University of Tennessee Health Science Center) and become an Academic Medical Center. We need the state to partner with the county to realize the true synergy of the rebuild.
The jail would be last among this list, but needs to be addressed as soon as possible. Shelby County needs to make the state responsible for its own felony cases so we can update our jail at the penal farm. The new mental health facility being built can be the flagship property of our new wraparound services provided in our jail.
Lowery: We have a serious deferred maintenance problem across this county. Residents are tired of watching tax dollars go to new construction only to see those buildings neglected within a decade. That has to change.
Regional One comes first. It’s our only Level 1 trauma center, making it a life-or-death priority. I was chairman of the board when we secured the initial $350 million, and as mayor, I’ll fight for every available state and federal dollar so the full cost doesn’t land on local property owners.
Second is our schools. A billion-dollar maintenance backlog is unacceptable. Our kids are learning in buildings that tell them they don’t matter. Third is the jail, addressed above.
To pay for these without a massive tax hike, I’ll pursue a rolling capital improvement plan, PILOT reform and federal infrastructure dollars. I’ve also advocated for increasing the hotel and motel tax to let visitors help fund essential infrastructure. Must-haves before nice-to-haves.
Qualls: First, education facilities. Second, health care infrastructure. Third, public safety facilities. We will fund these through phased investments, strategic bonding and maximizing state and federal dollars, while delaying lower-impact projects to maintain fiscal stability.
Smiley: My top three capital priorities would be: (1) Regional One, (2) corrections/jail infrastructure, and (3) education infrastructure. I put Regional One first because it is the region’s safety-net hospital, trauma center and a core public-health asset. The new Regional One campus must be delivered on time, on budget, with strict cost controls and without compromising current care.
The current administration is fast-tracking the groundbreaking without clearly identifying full funding plans for the development. My administration will ensure we are making the right financial decisions.
201 Poplar is a legal, human and fiscal risk. A failing jail costs the county more over time through lawsuits, emergency fixes, staffing instability and poor outcomes. I would place education facilities third because Shelby County’s long-term competitiveness depends on modern learning environments and workforce readiness.
To pay for those priorities, I would use multiyear capital planning, aggressive pursuit of state and federal participation, bond financing only where matched to long-lived assets and tighter project triage.
Q: How would you reform the juvenile detention system to improve oversight and keep youth from returning to the system?
Burgess: We must invest in our youth before they reach the system. I will model our proactive efforts on successful frameworks like Mayor Brandon Scott’s youth engagement programs in Baltimore — treating juvenile crime as a public health issue requiring robust community intervention and expanded workforce opportunities like YouthWorks to keep kids off the streets.
For those who enter the system, the focus must shift toward rehabilitation, education and mental health. I will ensure comprehensive oversight by mandating transparent reporting and increasing community-led advisory boards. We must partner with local nonprofits to provide wrap-around services, workforce training and educational support to youth transitioning out of detention to break the cycle of recidivism.
Collins: Our administration has already reformed the juvenile detention system (Youth, Justice and Education Center). We have, through the Division of Corrections, taken over the management and operations from the sheriff’s department. We have reinstituted visits with families, attendance in school and court appearances, all to assist those young people and help them while they are there. We have had community meetings and updates to bring this change to the community’s attention. The other way of reforming the system is to involve youth in programming, internships, through our Mayor’s Summer Youth Experience, provide mentors for youth that have engaged in the justice system and partner with the school districts to encourage the districts to do vocational training for those students that may not be excelling in the academic curriculum.
Feagins: Reforming the juvenile detention system starts with accountability on the front end and real opportunity on the back end. If we strengthen oversight, reduce unnecessary detention and invest in rehabilitation and reentry, we can build a system that is safer, more effective and holds youth accountable while giving them a path forward. I will explore implementing an independent oversight committee that provides public reporting on use of force, length of stay and outcomes, along with real-time review of serious incidents. We should reduce unnecessary detention. Many young people can be safely served through diversion programs, community-based supervision and restorative justice approaches.
Conditions inside facilities must support rehabilitation. Every resident should have access to consistent education, mental health services and staff trained in trauma-informed care.
Every young person should exit with a school placement or job pathway, along with ongoing support from a mentor or case manager. Improving partnerships with research-based programs is a viable way forward.
Kuhn: Right now, our juvenile detention system is nearly in as much disarray as the adult facilities. The good thing is that we can fix many of these issues. The biggest way we can do this is by reallocating the $4 million the sheriff’s office retained after giving up operations of the juvenile justice center. We then use these funds to staff officers that are trained specifically for juvenile offenders.
Our goal should be to make productive youth out of the children that come through our system, not to make them hardened criminals. The best way we can do this is by making sure they learn the error of their ways while being shown compassion. My office will also look to work with the Shelby County Commission to ensure that we have at least 1-2 commissioners acting as liaison between the juvenile justice center and the government, and have open access to inspect those facilities.
Lowery: I’ve coached youth football for 13 years. I’ve watched kids thrive when someone shows up for them, and I’ve watched what happens when nobody does.
We have to stop the revolving door. I’ll work toward an independent oversight board for the Youth Justice and Education Center because no facility housing our children should operate without real accountability. But oversight alone doesn’t fix the pipeline. We need to invest in Universal Pre-K, conflict resolution training in elementary schools and vocational training that gives young people something to work toward. I also want to expand paid apprenticeships and summer jobs through partnerships with our major employers so they’re available to more young people. Too often, the first time a young person interacts with the system is when something bad has happened. I want to change that story. A kid with a mentor, a paycheck and a path forward is a lot less likely to end up in a courtroom.
Qualls: We will move from reactive to preventative systems. That means stronger oversight, expanded diversion programs and investments in education and mentorship to reduce repeat involvement and create better outcomes for youth.
Smiley: Juvenile detention should be built around accountability, safety and interruption of the pipeline to prison structure. Shelby County already shifted youth detention oversight in 2025, which shows the structure can be changed when needed. My approach would be to lock in stronger oversight,require transparent reporting and connect detention to education, mental health, family support and workforce preparation from day one.
The broader framework of my platform points the way: trauma-informed services, mental-health support, education partnerships, vocational pathways and re-entry models tied to actual opportunity. I would apply those principles by creating individualized transition plans before release, expanding mentoring and paid pathways for youth and making recidivism reduction a performance metric for the system itself.
I would also insist on independent oversight and regular public reporting on use of force, staffing, education access, medical care, mental-health referrals and post-release outcomes. We cannot claim to be reforming a system we are not willing to measure.
Q: The county has not had a property tax in years. Would you support an increase? Why or why not?
Burgess: As assessor, I have pushed to help local governments budget better without defaulting to tax increases. When I chaired the county commission, I presided over the first Democratic-led property tax cut in the commission’s history. I do not support raising the tax burden on everyday citizens while we lose millions to corporate PILOTs that fail to deliver community benefits. We must audit our economic incentives, demand fair state funding and put our 8,000 blighted properties back onto the tax rolls.
However, I am committed to supporting schools, public safety, health care and infrastructure. Only after exhausting these alternative options would I support a tax increase as a last resort to maintain critical services. Even then, I would only do so after ensuring corporations receiving massive tax breaks finally pay their fair share.
Collins: The county has not had an increase in the property tax in over 20 years. We all know the county has had an increase in expenditures and has taken on the responsibility of restoring and improving its infrastructure. As county mayor, I would certainly advocate for an increase to make sure the county meets its financial obligations, restores its fund balance and to ensure the citizens’ quality of life continues.
Feagins: Right now, every penny on the tax rate represents roughly $3.3 million. We owe taxpayers a clear understanding of how every dollar is being used before asking for more.
My first step would be to fully evaluate how we are spending existing resources, identify inefficiencies and make a five-year financial forecast public through clear, accessible dashboards. The forecast would show expected revenues (best- and worst-case scenarios), projected costs of projects, future obligations (pensions, maintenance) and the gap between what we have and what we need.
If there is still a clear need, then we have an honest conversation with the public about what an increase would fund, why it’s necessary, what outcomes they can expect and how we will measure success.
People are willing to invest when they understand the value and see results. My commitment is to make sure any decision is people-centered, data-informed, clearly communicated and directly tied to improving services for residents.
Kuhn: Right now, I would not support a property tax increase. People are feeling the sticker shock of their county tax bill, and it can feel like double that if they are also Memphis city residents. Many people feel that we are taxed enough at this time, and I believe that my office as mayor would look to other avenues for raising revenue before looking to raise property taxes.
However, we will need to look at what the collection rate is for what percentage of property owners are paying their taxes in a timely manner that allows us to fund the services that we need to fully operate on a day-to-day basis. Some peer counties have found ways to maintain a relatively low property tax rate while still increasing countywide revenue, and seeking to learn from those models can go a long way to helping Shelby County put itself in a better fiscal position.
Lowery: Our families are already stretched thin, and they deserve to know we’ve done everything in our power to be responsible with what we have before we ask for more. This would not be one of my first options when people are already balancing increased utility bills and food costs.
My first step is a top-to-bottom audit of every department to find real savings. From there, it means growing our tax base through smart economic development and building a stronger relationship with Nashville to bring more investment to West Tennessee. We are a significant revenue stream for the capital, and it’s time for us to get our share. I’ve already pushed for modernizing revenue like the hotel and motel tax, which lets visitors help carry the load.
I’m not going to promise I’ll never raise taxes. Voters are smart enough to see through that. But it’ll be the last option, not the first.
Qualls: I do not support a property tax increase. We will focus on growing the tax base, improving efficiency and maximizing existing resources to deliver results without placing additional burden on residents.
Smiley: I would not begin with a property tax increase. My platform is built around growing the tax base without raising tax rates, especially through small business growth, workforce development, housing investment and stronger economic participation. Before asking families to pay more, the county government should prove it has maximized growth, federal leverage, operating discipline and strategic investment.
That said, I would not make reckless promises. If there is a true emergency involving life safety, debt capacity, or core public obligations, then any mayor has to level with the public about the numbers. But my first choice would be smarter growth, tighter budgeting, stronger regional partnerships and better capital sequencing.
Shelby County has recently emphasized lowering the property-tax rate, and I think voters expect a mayor who treats a tax increase as the last tool, not the first one. I would first fight to expand the base, bring in outside dollars, reform underperforming systems and target spending toward the essentials.
Katherine Burgess is the government accountability reporter for MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Contact her at katherine.burgess@mlk50.com
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