MEMPHIS — The Memphis City Council will decide how to spend a little more than $3 million in tax money set aside for southwest Memphis. Local lawmakers set aside 25% of the property taxes generated by two of xAI’s data centers to benefit surrounding neighborhoods harmed by years of legacy pollution from nearby industrial facilities.

An advisory board was formed to identify community spending priorities and recently submitted its final recommendations, which the City Council has accepted. Rather than narrowing options to top priorities, the board sent nearly a dozen broad suggestions, including basic city services such as street paving, public safety, and blight remediation.

Community advocates criticized the recommendations for excluding health as a primary focus despite longstanding concerns about pollution. “You all could’ve narrowed it down to those issues that the citizens expressed to you were paramount. People have talked consistently about healthcare,” said Glenda Hicks, a community advocate. She added, “We know that these citizens have been sorely impacted from the pollution. That should have been No. 1 on the list. It’s not a hard decision.”

The advisory board’s input followed a city survey that shaped its recommendations. The mayor’s office distributed the survey, which did not list health issues as a selectable concern, and the word health does not appear in the online version of the form. Residents were asked to rank community issues on a scale of 1 to 9, and the survey garnered more than 300 responses. Public safety and crime emerged near the top of the results, while environmental health was ranked fifth. “Folks had to write in what their concerns were; the concerns that folks have had that we continue to elevate around air pollution and public health,” said KeShaun Pearson, advisory board chair and executive director of Memphis Community Against Pollution. He added, “With the information that we do have from this survey, one thing that is glaring is the way that the survey was set up still lends itself to the mayor’s priorities.”

Some residents also questioned using new tax revenue for services they believe should already be funded. “We pay city and county taxes. It should look like heaven on earth,” said Westwood resident Kimberly Pearson. She added, “As a high priority, I understand these recommendations, but blight should be out of our taxes. Roads should be out of our tax money.”

Council members acknowledged the concerns. “This is the first time that this has ever happened here in Memphis, with big corporations coming that we have been able to capitalize off of tax dollars. But the most important thing is the health of this community,” said Councilwoman Yolanda Cooper-Sutton. She noted, “There has been a (health) problem long before xAI got here. The difference now is we have tax dollars to help the community and the people.” Councilwoman Pearl Walker, whose district includes part of Whitehaven where one data center is located, emphasized that the recommendations are not binding. “These are recommendations. These items are not all necessarily going to be implemented,” she said. “It’s a misconception, a misunderstanding, that anything in this list that the city already does, we’re going to use this money in lieu of that.” Lawmakers had previously promised up to $100 million would be set aside for communities within a 5-mile radius of the two data centers.