Gov. Bill Lee came before the legislature Monday, Feb. 2, with a Memphis victory lap. Crime is down, he said, and his budget would “make it stick” with $80 million in public safety grants and a permanent deployment of 100 Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers in Shelby County.
But in his first address to the full Tennessee General Assembly since Tennessee National Guard personnel were deployed to Memphis last fall, the issue of whether he should have asked for the body’s permission first simply never came up.
Nor did Lee acknowledge something Memphis officials have emphasized for months: Local crime numbers were already trending down before the Memphis Safe Task Force and Guard deployment became the state’s dominant political narrative.
Nevertheless, Lee drew on childhood memories of summers visiting cousins in Memphis to stand by his choices in the final State of the State address of his career.
“I have loved Memphis all my life,” Lee said. “It saddened my heart that over the decades, Memphis kids just haven’t been able to live that same, safe experience.”
‘Now we gotta make it stick’
Lee stated that a task-force model built on “unprecedented collaboration” among local, state and federal partners has produced “generational change” in Memphis, citing a 55 percent drop in crime in Shelby County and “the lowest monthly crime totals in over 25 years.”
He also touted arrests and missing-child recoveries, saying more than 5,500 “criminals have been arrested” and highlighting a Missing Child Unit he said recovered 146 missing children.
“Now we gotta make it stick,” Lee said, as he turned to the budget. “This year’s budget includes $80 million in grants to accelerate the momentum in Memphis. And we will increase the full-time Tennessee Highway Patrol presence by permanently placing 100 troopers in Shelby County.”
In a post-speech budget release, Lee’s office described the $80 million as “public safety grants to enhance crime prevention and increase public safety in Memphis.” But Lee did not identify the administering agency, eligibility requirements or the kinds of programs that would qualify for funding.
The controversy Lee left out
The most contentious piece of the Memphis safety effort has been the deployment of the Tennessee National Guard. According to a Davidson County Chancery Court order, Guard personnel were deployed to Memphis on Oct. 10, 2025, under Title 32 status as part of the Memphis Safe Task Force.
In November, Chancellor Patricia Head Moskal issued a temporary injunction blocking the deployment, saying it likely violated Tennessee’s militia law and concluding that only the legislature can authorize such a deployment for public safety under the circumstances argued in the case.
Lee did not reference that litigation Monday night, instead praising the Task Force’s collaboration among federal, state and local authorities and across party lines.
“The Memphis Safe Task Force has fostered an unprecedented collaboration between local and state and federal partners that’s nothing short of extraordinary,” he said. “The federal resources delivered by the Trump Administration, the dozens of agencies working side by side, the relentless bipartisanship that has proven all the critics wrong …”
“This Herculean effort has, in fact, created generational change in Memphis,” Lee proclaimed to applause. “Crime is down 55 percent in Shelby County with the lowest monthly crime totals in over 25 years.”
Yeah …. about that ….
Crime was dropping before the task force
Lee’s also did not touch on Memphis’ pre-task-force trend lines.
In September 2025, MPD reported that overall crime, robbery, burglary and larceny were at 25-year lows citywide based on year-to-date comparisons. More recently, MPD reported broad year-end reductions in 2025, including drops in overall crime, violent crime and murders compared with prior years.
Those figures do not resolve how much of the continued decline should be credited to state/federal pressure versus local strategies already underway — but they do add context to Lee’s framing, which presented the task force as the central engine of “generational change.”
Other notable items in Lee’s address
While Memphis occupied one of the speech’s most forceful segments, Lee’s larger message to lawmakers focused on education, health care and economic development.
On education, he again pushed to expand the Education Freedom Scholarship program, saying the state received 54,000 applications for 20,000 scholarships and urging lawmakers to “at the very least, double the amount of scholarships this year.”
Lee also said Tennessee has made an “historic investment” in public schools since 2019 and proposed additional funding, while emphasizing the administration’s goal of raising starting teacher pay to $50,000 by 2027.
On health care, he called for loosening regulations he said limit access to providers and facilities — particularly in rural areas — and argued that Tennessee could unlock more than $1 billion over five years through a federal Rural Health Transformation Fund if the state takes certain legislative actions.
Lee also pointed to Memphis in the economic development portion of his speech, citing xAI among major corporate wins and stating that since 2019, Memphis “ranks number one for the highest number of economic development projects.”
And he opened by acknowledging Winter Storm Fern and its toll, before closing on a farewell note. This will be his final year in office, he told lawmakers, and he urged them to approach it as a decisive moment shaping the state’s long-term future.
