AJ Massey is the current County Mayor of Madison County, Tennessee. Since coming into office, Mayor Massey has seen a variety of developments in the Greater Jackson area, including a 1% to 2% increase in population growth. Key contributors to this growth are companies like Dixie, 6K, and others that have created new job opportunities in the area.
Growth also brings new needs and opportunities. Along with the growth in population, the number of students in schools in the Jackson-Madison County School System has increased. The new building for Pope School is expected to open in August 2025, allowing more space for their students. As more people move to Jackson, more people are also traveling here. Tourism revenue makes a key impact on the economy of West Tennessee by having visitors pour their resources into local businesses and restaurants.
To learn more about Madison County, visit their website at madisoncountytn.gov.
The Pocket Change Podcast is presented by Leaders Credit Union. To learn more about Leaders, visit leaderscu.com.
Shea:
Hey, this is Mayor Shea Brown.
Carrie:
And this is Carrie.
Shea:
Welcome to the Pocket Change Podcast.
Carrie:
Where you'll learn better ways to spend, save, and invest, and take control of your financial journey.
Shea:
Carrie, you know how people sometimes get into politics?
Carrie:
No, I think that apparently our jobs can lead you to it.
Shea:
What do you mean? Like being a podcast host?
Carrie:
No, our real job.
Shea:
Yes, like doing business development, community engagement, building relationships. That's why I said Mayor Shea Brown, because our guest on the podcast today was a former employee here at Leaders. It was all about building relationships and connecting people, and so we got to talk to him today.
Carrie:
Did you know that he opened my first Leaders Credit Union account?
Shea:
See there, look at that.
Carrie:
I can't wait to talk to him. We're excited to welcome our guest, AJ Massey, the mayor of Madison County, to the Pocket Change podcast. Welcome, AJ.
AJ Massey:
Thanks so much. Thanks for having me.
Carrie:
Well, we're happy to dig into all things Madison County. Could you first start off by telling us a little bit about yourself and your journey into politics?
AJ Massey:
Sure. Well, it was a not intentional journey into politics for sure. I grew up in Jackson, went to school here, went to college here, and really began a career in banking back in 2005. That was where I wanted to be, was a banker for my career. Had a child in 2013, and as he grew up, we were thinking about where he wanted to go to school. Determined that we were going to go in the public route and wanted to be a part of that evolution, I guess, moving on to his next level. I ran for school board, ran unopposed, that's the best way to run for political office, and was able to win that role, of course. So spent four years there and really had no plan of doing anything beyond that. I had switched banks a couple of times, and I was working at a local bank here in town and really enjoying the job of being a banker, helping people solve issues and doing some really high-level finance with some big companies and developers in West Tennessee. It was really finding my groove, enjoying life. When you get comfortable in a role, when you get consistent in a role, sometimes that's exactly when the Lord wants you to make a change.
AJ Massey:
That's where I was. I was satisfied with where I was and began to look around at what the leadership in Madison County was going to look like for that next election. I asked a few friends who the next mayor is going to be. I wasn't too thrilled with the people that had already put their name out there; just didn't seem like they would represent me and my family the way that I would prefer. They're good people, just didn't see the best opportunity for our future there and with all the growth coming. I had some wise friends of mine, I don't know how much I liked them after that, but they recommended that maybe I was the person to do that. Lauren and I spent really a good three months praying about it, doing what we thought biblically was the right thing to do, which was spend a lot of time in prayer, we fasted, we sought Godly counsel, we sought what scripture would have us do. Really, I believe if you do those things, then you can do what you want. The Lord is going to give you the desire where you're supposed to go next.
AJ Massey:
I just thought it was an opportunity to step out and use relationships that I built for the last 20 years of my career to take a next level step. So I decided to run for office, resigned my job in January of '22 and began campaigning and won the Republican primary in May of that year and the general election in August. I guess the rest is history, as they say. Never was the plan, but here we are. Also, I actually spent some time here at Leaders. Transitioned from a large regional bank to Leaders Credit Union back in 2010 and spent seven years. The longest I've ever been in any job so far was at Leaders Credit Union. I started off in the branch side at, what then was the main branch, on Oil Well, and ran that branch for a few years. We had some great success and then was moved over into the business development role. I really can say, had that transition not happened, I don't think I would be mayor because that role was out in the community. Todd Swims, CEO, asked me to be at every ribbon cutting and at every chamber event, every opportunity to be in front of people representing the credit union, I was, by my job title, required to be there.
AJ Massey:
I started developing relationships around town and made a lot of good friends. When I gathered all those relationships up, including that three or so years in the business development role, I actually did the math on how many votes I thought I could get that they were there. Once again, it worked out. It was one of those things, that the intent was just to do my job and meet people and be likable. It worked out to lead to other things that I had no clue were in the plan.
Shea:
Yeah, I love how your past leaders led you to becoming mayor and building those relationships, so important to that. As mayor of Madison County in the years you've been mayor, what's something you're most proud of?
AJ Massey:
Well, we've accomplished a lot, and there's really more to come. It has gotten really busy this year. The last four or five months have been a whirlwind of good activity. We have issues as well, but we have a lot of good things. We've seen significant growth in Madison County. For about 20 years, based on the last census in 2020, Madison County had really stayed flat in population. Most West Tennessee counties actually decreased in population. We were one of the few that had not lost any population, but we had grown 200 or 300 residents, which over a 20-year period, that's basically no one. We've stayed the same. We're growing at between 1% and 2% a year right now, which equates to about 1,500 to 2,000 new residents every year. From going to 200 or 300 over a 20-year period to 2,000 a year, that's a testament to our environment, our culture. That's a testament to our people. That's a testament to the cost of living, I believe. I think our industrial partners is a big part of that as well, but we're proud of the environment that we're trying to build in Madison County, to make this place a place that people want to live and work and raise their families and give them all of those things that are governmental, yes, but also fun and things to do and safety and good quality roads and airports and things that make a community vibrant and make it an option for people to live in.
AJ Massey:
I'm really proud of that. I'm proud of some of our industrial recruitment efforts that we've had. We've had Georgia Pacific has opened with their Dixie plants. That's 400 new jobs in Madison County that pay well above county average. We've had 6K, which is a Boston-based company. They make metals and materials that go on batteries. I've learned a lot about the battery protection the world. There's more to come. There's things that I can't even tell you about. Great Wolf has broken ground, so hopefully in the next couple of years, we'll have a Great Wolf Lodge here in Madison County. When you think about our current visitors per year, tourism-wise, about a half a million visitors a year, Great Wolf should bring in about that many themselves. We're going to double in the visitors coming, but with that comes some challenges, but I'm just proud of the momentum that we have moving. We have a governing body that is willing to make wise moves and take risks where necessary to build this place, once again, not for us. That's very cliché to say, but it's not for me. It's for my kids. I want them, when they have an option to leave Madison County, to stay, to have what they want here, to have the quality schools and the safety and the cost of living and the amenities so that when my grandchildren are born, they're here.
AJ Massey:
I want them nearby. It's a very selfish and vain pursuit, but we're trying to build a community that people want to live and raise families in. Also, I'm very proud of our financial stability in the county. We've come in under budget. Every year, I've been a part of the county. We've had a balanced budget every year, of course. We don't come into the year without understanding where our money is going and how it needs to be spent. It's not ours, it's the taxpayers. My first year, we were $2.8 million under budget. Year two, we were about $6 million under budget. All that means is we have really effective department heads who, that money was allocated to their departments to spend on projects or maybe even payroll or capital needs, and they were able to find ways to cut costs throughout the year and save taxpayer money and give it back to the county for for us to reallocate the next year or for us to spend on a need, or a deferred maintenance, or speed up some progress. Once again, just those two alone, that's nearly $9 million of taxpayer money that we budgeted to spend, we could afford to spend, but we didn't spend it, which means we can now spend it on something better and impactful going forward. So I'm very proud of that.
Carrie:
It's so exciting to see so many people moving to the area. Are there any other highlights you would like to mention?
AJ Massey:
Well, highlights for sure. We have some challenges that come along with our growth. Highlights are new residents means the need for new housing, which we have housing going up everywhere right now, multifamily, single-family housing developments. We have a captive community happening in North Madison County that's 1,100 new homes. Some of them are townhomes, apartments, single family homes. That's a captive community where you're going to come in, you're going to have commercial space and maybe a grocery store and a church and maybe even a school. You can live and work and worship all in that community. You don't really ever have to leave. I've used the analogy of you drive in on Friday from your job at Georgia Pacific, you park your car and you don't get back in your car again until Monday morning because you run around in your golf car to the farmer's market, to the dog park, to the movie theater, to the bank. You're able to, or to the credit union, you're able to function in that. That's something that really puts a mark on us. We're not a fly-by-night community anymore. We're not small. We still have the ability to connect locally, and we're still small enough where people know people.
AJ Massey:
But we have some of those big city amenities that are happening really fast. I'm really proud of that. With those new homes comes new revenue in the government side, new tax revenue, new sales tax revenue. My favorite revenue is tourism revenue because those people leave their dollars behind in Madison County, and they don't typically need my fire department or they don't need my sheriff. They don't impact my roads too bad. My school system doesn't be impacted by that, but they leave their money behind. We're doing things that really build some of those revenue streams. More money is just that more money, but it allows us to make our roads better, to fund our schools at the level that they need, to make sure our safety with EMA fire and sheriff have what they need in the county. There's lots of opportunities, with new opportunities with new revenue come new challenges, but it comes new opportunities to do bigger and better things and make life better for folks around here.
Shea:
What do you see is the biggest challenge for Madison County right now?
AJ Massey:
Well, there's challenges with growth. Growth is good. Growth is good. I want growth. The challenges that come with a dying county is much, much more stressful in my mind than the growing part, but there are challenges that come with growth. Primarily when population goes up, those services have to keep up with them. There's impact on our infrastructure. There's impact on our safety and security. Our Sheriff's Department has to bulk up has to be prepared for those new residents in the county. We have to make sure we have fire departments where they need to be so we can be responsive. Our emergency management has to respond to those growth pieces as well. Then one of the other challenges that's an unknown, and it's something that I think about consistently is what's the impact of growth going to have on our culture? We are Jackson. We're Madison County. We have a look and a feel and a personality. I'm not saying that that necessarily may not need to change in some ways, but I don't want it to change without some control and some impact over it. When the population moves in, we want to make sure that they are understanding who we are and, for lack of a better word, assimilating to who we are so we can remain with our history and our culture, but with those things, there's housing that's needed. Housing is expensive and difficult to build, but it's needed. Once they're up, it helps everybody out to have good, safe places to live and raise their families, and it adds to the tax base. Obviously, once again, our schools can grow with that as well. We've seen an increase in our school population this year for the first time, once again, in decades, our schools are growing, which is a wonderful thing. Those little kids cost money, and they cost facilities, and it costs teachers, and it costs infrastructure, and things that we need to put in place. That's the county's responsibility. We have two responsibilities outside of the city that we have and that we are required to do statutorily, and that's take care of our schools. We're the primary funding body for our public school system, and we fund our jail as well, our county jail. With the increased population comes increased crime, unfortunately, which comes increased population in our jail. We have to fund that and make sure that those inmates are safe and they're held in the right ways, and all that costs money. It's not ironic being on a podcast about money and about a credit union, because that's a big part of my job, which is, I think, my past lends to this, is understanding how money moves and how if we put it to work in the right places, it can have bigger impact than maybe even we think, but that growth brings those challenges on, but we're ready for them. We're working through them. Like I said, much rather deal with the challenges of growth than the challenges of the other thing.
Shea:
We're going to be able to enjoy the progress that we see in our community and all the good things.
AJ Massey:
That's the plan.
Shea:
All the good things.
AJ Massey:
Absolutely.
Shea:
I think you mentioned about connectivity; being able to connect. One of the big things is the airport, Jackson Regional Airport, and the new air service we have. Tell us a little bit about that.
AJ Massey:
Our airport is now a thing. It's been a part of the community for decades now, but it's become a real game changer for us, a differentiator for us. We were able to, late last year, agree to a partnership with Denver Air Connection, which is obviously out of Denver, but it's a 50-passenger jet that flies twice a day out of McKellar Sipes's, excuse me, Jackson Regional Airport now. It's been renamed to, once again, bring in that West Tennessee region, but a flight to Atlanta in the morning, Chicago in the afternoon. So far they've not missed a flight out of Jackson. They missed a flight in Atlanta because of some snow about three, four weeks ago, but other than that, they've been 100% on time. They've been taking off when they're supposed to, landing when they're supposed to, of course, safe. It's a full-service jet with a stewardess, with a bathroom. Flies at 30,000 feet, so you're comfortable. It's very quiet. It really is exceptional. Once again, from Jackson to Atlanta, Chicago, you can connect anywhere all over the world. You literally can go to Belgium, to Japan, to wherever you want to go, and you can park your car in Jackson, start here.
AJ Massey:
Nobody else in West Tennessee has that, obviously, besides Memphis. By the way, it's about a 20-second walk from your car to the terminal. We also have TSA in Jackson. If you have to go through TSA screening, you're going to be 50th in line at worst because there's 50 people getting on that jet. Try that in Memphis or Nashville. I'm flying out of Nashville Saturday morning at 5:00 AM. I hope to be under 200th person in line. That's my fingers crossed. Once again, you have a short walk to your flight and a short trip through TSA, and you're on to the rest of the world from right here in Jackson. That's a game changer. It's really going to make us an option for a lot of people to live and a lot of industry to locate here because of that option.
Carrie:
Well, we've talked about a lot of exciting things to Madison County area, but what, in your opinion, is your favorite?
AJ Massey:
Goodness, I have lots of favorites about Madison County. Once again, cliché, but the people. I can connect with anyone I want to. I have people that I trust in this community that look out for me, and I look out for them. We still have a small town atmosphere. At the same time, we have big city amenities. We have more restaurants than you can count. That's another unspoken thing. There's been some misnomers about some of our restaurants closing locally. Those have been chain restaurants, but if you've seen for every chain restaurant that's closed, there's been two or three local restaurants that have popped up. I don't know about you, but I prefer that. I'd rather give money to the person who's putting that money back in my community than some partner somewhere. Now we love our Chili's and we love our O'Charlie's and we love our big restaurants, but also, once again, if these folks live here and they're running their business here, then we want to support them. That's been really special. The other thing that I've learned, Madison County residents, if you live outside of the city, you live out there for a reason. You still have the ability to disconnect from the busyness of a city, and you can really, frankly, be left alone in the county.
AJ Massey:
It's a big push with our county is to make sure we balance our services and our responsiveness with people wanting be left alone; wanting to live their life and not be bothered by oversight, not be bothered by taxation, not be bothered by things that they don't want in their backyard. We're going to make sure that they're able to live their life. At the same time, they can drive into the city of Jackson and spend as much time around people as they want to. They're able to escape in a short drive away. Madison County has a lot to offer. Once again, a big goal of our administration in my office is to make sure that we're making quality moves so that taxes stay as low as they can. Tennessee is one of the lowest tax states in the Union, and per capita I think we're number two in the lowest tax state in the country. We are one of the lowest tax counties in the state, and so I want to keep it that way. So more of that money stays in your pocket. Once again, you can go spend it on your family, and it's not coming to me.
Shea:
We like the sound of that. The lowest taxes, that's great. One of the big projects is the Pope School coming up and hopefully set to open later this year. Tell us a little bit about that project. Any updates you can share? Sure.
AJ Massey:
Very proud of that Pope project. As I mentioned earlier, I was on the school board for four years, and during my time on school board, we were able to get that project going and off the ground. It had been talked about, I think, for 30 years, but no one had ever really put it to paper and figured out how to make it happen. We were able to get unanimous approval from the school board to build that school. We asked the county commission for a pretty large amount of money to build it. They agreed to build us the biggest option we gave them. That school is set to open in August of this year. It'll be $48 million school, largest ever school investment, capital investment for the county, 1,250 students. It'll be a pre-k through eighth grade with sports facilities and just a really well-designed campus for the growth in the northwest part of the county. That previous school was over 70 years old. I laughed, there were portables behind the main building that were temporary 35 years ago, and they'd still been there. That school was built for about 400 students. There's over 700 in there now.
AJ Massey:
They are literally bursting at the seams. If you walk down the hallways between classes, it's wild. Those kids have really have thrived in that environment, but just imagine if they had the amenities to match what's already happening in that school. I will be front and center, I promise you, grinning ear to ear when we cut a ribbon on that this fall. Cannot wait to see how that grows and how that impacts our county. It's really what those students deserve. It's a testament to our county commission and our county leadership that that's where we want to put our largest investments in our students.
Carrie:
That's great. It looks beautiful. I've driven by there recently, and it does look great. Since this is a financial podcast, we do want to ask, what's the best financial advice you've ever been given?
AJ Massey:
Well, I've been given a lot of financial advice, some solicited, some unsolicited. 17 years in banking can bring that out. You've probably give me a lot, too. I've probably given a lot, and I've done a lot of study in this space, but I can tell you the one that resonates with me is really twofold. Money is amoral. Money is neither good nor bad. I've used the analogy, and Dave Ramsey uses the analogy of a brick or a rock. A brick can be wonderful. It can build a school like Pope. If it drops on your foot, that brick is not that great for you at that moment. It's really not the brick, it's how it's used and how it's put to use. Money is the exact same way. It can provide blessings and opportunities and experiences and memories and life-changing things. It can also be a source of extreme stress and divorce and problems within a family. Money is amoral. You give it its good or badness. At the same time, you can't not pay attention to it. Money is fluid. Money moves. I found that out. If you don't give a name to it before you have it, it's going to make its own name, and it may not be what you intend for it to be.
AJ Massey:
It will find a crack or a crevice, and it'll walk its way out. Money is amoral and money is active. You got to put a plan around it. Once again, having two boys that they appreciate money, they understand it, and we're trying to develop that in them that money can be whatever you want it to be, so let's make it good.
Shea:
Yeah, if you don't tell your money where to go, you're going to wonder where it went.
AJ Massey:
It's going to go where it wants to go, and it's probably not where you want it to go.
Shea:
Last question also related to money. This is the Pocket Change Podcast. If you had a little extra pocket change, what would you spend it on?
AJ Massey:
If I had a little extra pocket change, I'd probably spend it on something with the family. We love to travel. That's something about this role that's been unique is we've had some opportunities to do and see some things in a condensed amount of time that I had plans to do at some point in my relationship and my family, but we never had put plans around it. Now we've been able to. So, seeing some things and experiencing some things. We'd probably take a trip. We'd go see a zoo or a water park, or we'd go somewhere where we could build some memories and have some fun as a family. After all, those toys break and those video games get old. Those memories we can live on and it'll last a lot longer than those moments.
Carrie:
That's right.
Shea:
Spend it on an experience.
AJ Massey:
That's exactly right.
Carrie:
Well, thank you so much for joining us today.
AJ Massey:
Thanks for having me.