City Council passes ordinance to allow xAI property tax revenue to benefit community
By: Shaquiena Davis
The ordinance allows tax funds from xAI to be used to support communities surrounding the supercomputer, including Boxtown and Whitehaven.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. —
Memphis residents have mixed feelings after the Memphis City Council approved an ordinance Tuesday, Aug. 19, that will allow xAI property tax revenue to support surrounding areas.
This comes after pushback against billionaire Elon Musk’s xAI supercomputer facility that is currently operating near several Memphis neighborhoods.
“It’s fine if they’re going to do something with the money to help the neighborhood,” a Boxtown resident who asked to remain anonymous said.
The City Council approved the tax ordinance Tuesday night, Aug. 19, after its third and final reading.
The ordinance allows 25% of the property tax revenue from the xAI facility — up to $100 million— to fund public benefit projects within a 5-mile radius of the xAI supercomputer facility. One percent of that money will be set aside for environmental improvement efforts.
Despite these guarantees, not everyone is on board.
“We are suffering. We are smelling the smells. We are enduring the harms,” Boxtown resident Kimberly Owens-Pearson said during the Council meeting. “We are losing our people, and y’all are going to keep telling us that, ‘Well, we need new stuff.'”
“[We’ve] got to take it as it come,” the Boxtown resident who wished to remain anonymous said. “Leave it as it is because we can’t change a doggone thing; nothing but the way we live. That’s all it is.”
The city has not finalized decisions on how the funds will be used, but some say funding could go toward infrastructure, affordable housing, or programs that support nonprofits and economic development.
“I don’t argue about nothing the government do cause I can’t change it,” the anonymous resident said.
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