State Sen. Brent Taylor has been in the Memphis news a lot recently. Here's why

Tennessee state Sen. Brent Taylor, the former funeral home director and long-time fixture in Memphis and Shelby County politics, has been a recurring figure in headlines for the past several months.

The state senator has recently emerged in Memphis headlines with a flurry of bills aimed at curtailing criminal justice reform efforts and shaping how tax revenue is portioned out for the FedExForum. He has also taken aim at Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy and a local criminal court judge, by characterizing both as soft on crime.

Originally from North Mississippi, Taylor, 55, moved to Memphis after completing his associate degree in mortuary science at Northwest Mississippi Community College.

In 1995, he was elected to the Memphis City Council. At the time, he was the youngest councilperson elected. He served three terms on the city council and, several years later in 2011, was appointed to replace a vacant seat on the Shelby County Board of Commissioners.

Taylor's years as a city councilman were not without clashes with other councilmembers. He championed conservative ideas and voted against every tax increase in all three of his terms. While on the council, Taylor represented parts of East Memphis, Cordova, and Hickory Hill.

As a state senator today, his representation has shifted east. His current district includes a small portion of Memphis but largely spreads out over Collierville, Germantown, Cordova and Lakeland. His priorities, however, have centered mostly on Memphis as of late.

Despite living in Eads, a largely rural community in eastern Shelby County, Taylor has kept his focus on Memphis crime levels, and has been a been a prominent voice backing recent reprimands of Shelby County judges.

He has also taken a recent focus on funding renovations to the FedExForum in Memphis, introducing a bill that would allow Shelby County to reallocate funds from the motel-hotel tax in order to fund renovations for sports facilities.

Below is a rundown of the bills and moments that have inserted Taylor into the headlines.

Taylor did not respond to multiple media requests from The Commercial Appeal.

Taylor seeks more state control and intervention over criminal justice issues in Memphis

Taylor has been fond of characterizing criminal justice reform measures as "schemes" and criminal justice reform organizations like Just City and Decarcerate Memphis as "leftist, soft-on-crime, criminal coddlers."

This stance is most evident in his push to overturn an ordinance passed by the Memphis City Council that banned pretextual stops, meaning police cannot pull someone over for a broken tail light, or expired tags. The ordinance was passed in 2023 following the beating death of Tyre Nichols after five former Memphis police officers alleged Nichols had committed an unspecified traffic offense that led to the fatal encounter.

Taylor justified his bill by pointing out that a traffic stop led to the arrest of Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber.

Despite pleas and requests for meetings from Nichols' parents, RowVaughn and Rodney Wells, the bill passed and is headed to the floor. Should it become law, it would be one of the latest instances of the Tennessee legislature overriding local government.

Taylor takes aim at Shelby County DA

Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy has been in office for 14 months, but that hasn't stopped a conservative push to link Mulroy to an increase in violent crime rates, despite those rates rising steadily during former District Attorney Amy Weirich's tenure as Shelby County's top prosecutor.

Taylor called for a state investigation into both Mulroy and Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Paula Skahan, citing two cases where lengthy sentences were altered — one case involved reducing a 162-year sentence for non-violent crimes, and the other was changing a death sentence to life in prison for an inmate with an intellectual disability.

Additionally, Taylor and state Rep. John Gillespie of Memphis filed a bill that would require any nonprofit working with a district attorney to disclose all donations.

Taylor claimed that restorative justice organizations like Just City, the Vera Institute, and the Justice Innovation Lab have an "outsized" influence over the Shelby County Justice system, and seek to end the practice of cash bail.

With changes afoot for Memphis' sports stadiums, Taylor seeks tax revenue alterations

Now that official ownership of the Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium has been transferred to the University of Memphis, a remaining question of how tax revenue will fund other Memphis sports venues is being discussed at the local and state level.

Taylor introduced a bill that would allocate tax revenue from Shelby County's motel-hotel tax towards renovations for the FedExForum, which turns 20 years old in 2024 and needs updating.

Taylor's bill is in tandem with a similar resolution from the Shelby County Commission to divide revenue from the motel-hotel tax that would go toward Memphis Tourism. The county commission passed the resolution Monday.

Micaela Watts is a reporter for The Commercial Appeal and can be reached at micaela.watts@commercialappeal.com.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Who is Sen. Brent Taylor? Why the Tennessee lawmaker has been in news