MemphisShelbyInform

A small group (actually the board of directors of memphisshelbyinform) got together and talked about the condition of Memphis and Shelby County. As taxpayers and people with business experience, we want to lower the cost of government without hurting the necessary services that government must provide. As a result we have discovered a way to save millions of dollars of tax money for the City of Memphis and hours of waiting for auto inspections.

At our recent board meeting, we talked about the various issues that citizens in Memphis are talking about and that need change. We talked about the currently hottest issue, the testing of your car and the waiting lines (up to 3 hours recently). We have thought for some time that there needs to be a different approach. We have recently written about this issue and called for changes while Memphis is proceeding with building a new testing station and hiring more people. John Malmo, a member of our board, pointed out some time ago that other states test only the auto emissions in a quick, easy test.

We started calling around and talked to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation and found something incredible. They do not require the old tail pipe test that they do here in Memphis. Cars after 1996 have a computer terminal built into the car and other Tennessee testing stations do a simple computer test on the emissions. Nashville and Chattanooga have turned this testing over to a private firm and that firm pays for the testing stations. They charge about $10 per inspection and return 25% of the fee to the local government. The typical waiting time is 10 to 15 minutes. They do not test lights, brakes or anything else, just the exhaust gas component. Brakes are the owner’s maintenance responsibility as well as the lights. Lights are also monitored by the police on the streets if they are not functioning properly. Why then is Memphis not doing the same procedure?

It is incredible that the City of Memphis chose to do the big government solution to this problem rather than investigating a private sector smaller government solution. Possibly they did not do any investigation into this matter and it fell on private business people and taxpayers to uncover the fact that apparently Memphis does not need the three existing testing station or the new one that they are building. The City could make money by turning this testing over to a private firm, reduce the number of city employees, save millions of dollars on the whole testing process and save the aggravation of its citizens who hate waiting three hours in line. We call on the Mayor and the City Council to take immediate action. How many other such opportunities are out there out there for savings? We will continue to investigate and we call on our fellow taxpayers to help us by sending in your suggestions for change to www.memphisshelbyinform.com. We will do the investigations. It is time the citizens get involved. How about fixing flat tires? Any ideas?