Of Course They Are

In response to a large Ford factory moving in 5 miles down the road, the State Comptroller has demanded that a predominantly black town of Mason, Tennessee to dis-incorporate, so that the area can be managed by the overwhelmingly white county surrounding it.

This is not a surprise.  This is likely to end up prime real estate, and if they cannot kick black people off of the land, whether through property bogus tax assessments, eminent domain, or (the always popular) law enforcement harassment, black people would be allowed to benefit from economic development, which is simply not acceptable to these racist f%$#s:

The Tennessee Comptroller issued an unusual appeal last week to residents of this small, majority Black town, which occupies fewer than two square miles in rural west Tennessee.

“In my opinion, it’s time for Mason to relinquish its charter,” Comptroller Jason Mumpower wrote in a letter mailed to each one of Mason’s 1,337 property owners.

Mumpower urged local residents to “encourage your local officials to do what’s necessary to allow Mason to thrive. There is no time to waste.”

State comptrollers, responsible for financial oversight of local government, typically communicate directly with elected local leaders and not their constituents. “We have not issued a letter to citizens like this before,” Comptroller spokesman John Dunn said, noting it is “unprecedented for us to publicly call for a town charter to be relinquished.”

But the Comptroller’s unprecedented public callout comes at an unprecedented time not only for Mason, but for the state. Mason, located in the southeastern corner of Tipton County, now finds itself with some of the most coveted real estate in Tennessee.

It’s one of the nearest towns to the massive new site to be built for Blue Oval City, a key component in Ford Motor Co’s multibillion-dollar pivot to electric vehicle manufacturing.

Mumpower’s letter has infuriated Mason’s part-time elected officials, who insist they have no intention of ceding their town’s 153-year-old charter – which would subsume the largely African-American, majority Democratic community under the governance of Tipton County, which is predominantly white and Republican.

………

Town leaders are accusing Mumpower and other state officials of big-footing a long-ignored, largely Black community now that major investment is heading its way.

Mason is 60% Black and includes descendants of men, women and children enslaved in the area before Emancipation. For more than a century the town was led by White elected officials.

That changed in 2016, when fraud and mismanagement allegations led to the resignations of nearly all City Hall officials, all of whom were White. Mason’s current mayor, vice mayor and five of its six alderman are Black.

………

Mason lies just five miles from the future site of Blue Oval City, Ford Motor Company’s 4,100-acre electric truck and battery plant, landed by state officials last year with nearly $1 billion in taxpayer incentives. The operation is expected to generate 27,000 new jobs and $22 million annually in state taxes after its planned 2025 opening.

………

According to Mumpower, Mason’s leadership is ill-equipped to manage the challenges, and opportunities, ahead. 

The translation of that last bit is, "We can't let n*****s run things now that there is real money involved."

The town does have a history of fiscal mismanagement, or rather it did until 5 years ago, when the ALL WHITE members of city government were caught being on the take, and were forced to resign.

Since then, the town has done a creditable job of digging itself out of that hole, but they are still too black.

………

In 2011, a former Mason town clerk pleaded guilty to embezzling $100,000 in taxpayer funds. In 2016, a former public works superintendent was indicted by a Tipton County Grand Jury after investigators discovered he had paid himself an extra $600,000 between 2007 and 2015. The town’s financial problems stretch back even further: a 2001 state examination of the town’s finances found numerous accounting errors in tax and court collections.

“This administration inherited half a million in debt,” Rivers said.

In 2015, after fraud allegations emerged, nearly the entire town government resigned, leaving a newly elected junior alderman, Gwen Kilpatrick, to assume the office of mayor. Kilpatrick became the city’s first Black mayor. Since then the city’s leadership has remained largely African-American.

And since then, Rivers said, city officials have worked to pare the town’s debt that accrued during prior administrations while planning for a future with parks, paved streets, a new codes department, infrastructure improvements and beautification projects. In the past three years, city finance officials have completed five of its past-due financial audits. By the end of this year, they expect to be caught up.

Now that the land has value, white people want to steal it.

BTW, there is an update, the Comptroller pulled the trigger on his threat: 

A tiny, majority-Black town in Tennessee which was poised to benefit from a massive investment from Ford Motor Company has instead been taken over by the state’s comptroller.

Mason, Tenn., has about 1,500 residents. Most of its elected officials are Black and members of the Democratic party, in stark contrast with the mostly-white and Republican-controlled Tipton County government as well as Tennessee Comptroller Jason Mumpower, who on Tuesday took the step of seizing control of Mason’s finances. 

………

Automotive giant Ford is planning to invest a reported $5.6 billion in a massive new electric vehicle and battery facility dubbed Blue Oval City, which will sit just four miles from Mason. According to the Tennessee Lookout story, the main highway between Memphis and Blue Oval City, as well as a rail line and other critical infrastructure run right through Mason.

That puts Mason likely on the cusp of a huge windfall in tax and development revenues, none of which its elected mayor or city council will control with Mumpower in charge.  

It's a feature, not a bug.

This is transparently and nakedly corrupt and racist,