Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell says he is concerned taxpayers aren’t getting enough bang for their bucks when it comes to education. Mayor Luttrell is going to go into more detail when he delivers his State of the County speech Tuesday. Local 24’s Mike Matthews talked to the Mayor.
It won’t be a barn burner. Mark Luttrell is a low-key man. But he will mention the good, and the things that aren’t so good in Shelby County.
“We have been well managed as far as our finances are concerned, really preceding my tenure with the Mayor’s office. I can’t say I’ve done it all,” says Luttrell.
For any government leader to say they are in good financial shape is a big deal these days, so yes, he will brag about it.
But Luttrell will give his last state of the county speech spending time talking about something he mentioned in his first state of the county speech: tax money and education.
“We’re spending a tremendous amount of money on education,” says the Mayor. “If we’re going to be competitive economically then we’re going to need to see some results from that money we’re putting into education.”
Mayor Luttrell is in his last term and he cannot run for re-election. He has seen education change from both a Memphis and county school system to a county school system, to municipal schools and a county system that pretty much runs all the Memphis schools.
He has audited the school system budget before, but Mayor Luttrell doesn’t have the final say over the school system budget. County commissioners handle that job.
“The challenges that we have in education are not to be solved by just the school system,” says Luttrell.
For Mark Luttrell, this is going to be a short year. His term ends in August.
