Nashville mayor outlines priorities — and a tax increase — in State of Metro speech

Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell struck an aspirational tone in his State of Metro address on Thursday morning, painting a picture of a city with forward momentum and a reliable local government.

“The State of Metro today is where many cities would like to be,” O’Connell said. “With the 2026 budget, we’re continuing to invest in us by focusing on delivering the fundamentals that touch the lives of our residents every day, on continuing what works, and responding to the biggest needs and concerns of Nashvillians, including housing affordability.”

The annual address outlines the mayor’s priorities — which he listed as quality schools, reliable services, and safe neighborhoods. And the moment is synchronized with the release of his proposed budget, which includes a property tax increase for Nashvillians.

O’Connell is recommending a tax rate of 2.814. While that rate is substantially lower than it has been, it comes at a time when property values have increased at a record rate. The bottom line will be higher tax bills for many.

Overall, the city budget would be $3.8 billion, about 15% higher than last year.

Select budget details include:

• Metro Schools increased by 13%, including $64.5 million intended to backfill the elimination of federal dollars
• the addition of nurses in all city schools, and more school resource officers
• $49 million more for first responder agencies
• $45 million toward affordable housing, coordinated with the new Unified Housing Strategy
• increased transit funding to run WeGo buses more often and to add security at transit facilities
• creation of a standalone Department of Waste Services
• an uptick in Metro Parks spending
• health funding for Nashville Strong Babies and HIV prevention
• hiring of nighttime Metro Codes inspectors, as sought by some councilmembers

Federal cuts

This year’s speech comes amid a tumultuous time for the city: Metro has recently joined two lawsuits against the Trump administration over canceled federal grants that impacted Metro employees and local programs.

“We’ve lost a reliable partner in the federal government, and that’s impacting the community’s work on many levels,” O’Connell said.

He added that nearly 400 Nashville-area non-profits are at risk of losing about $1.5 billion. Vanderbilt University Medical Center is also cutting $250 million from its budget because of federal funding uncertainty.

“Metro has been ghosted on awarded funds of more than $14 million,” O’Connell said. “But we’re not standing idly by as the federal government tries to cut funding that’s legally ours. We’ve told them we’ll see you in court.”

Protest

Even before the speech began, anti-tax protestors gathered in front of venue, holding signs and chanting “We need DOGE! We need Elon Musk!”

The demonstration was organized by three local conservative organizations — Americans for Prosperity-Tennessee, GOP-Nashville and the Nashville Tea Party — in opposition of rising property tax bills.

Cynthia Abrams WPLN News

Protestors gathered outside of the downtown library to protest increasing property tax bills ahead of the annual State of Metro address.

“We’ve been choked to death with taxes,” one protestor, Steve Brubaker, said. “They already raised it during COVID, you know, 30 plus percent. And now he’s proposing even more. Enough is enough.”

Another protestor, Greg Halvorsen, criticized city spending.

“They just keep increasing the budget, no accountability,” Halvorsen said. “[Nashville General] Hospital gets millions and millions of dollars. The onus is on working people, and especially homeowners or property owners.”

But, in O’Connell’s speech, the mayor criticized the protestors.

“These are the same people celebrating the chaos of federal cuts, which, make no mistake, are not about efficiency,” O’Connell said.

The mayor laid out his case that city services — funded by new property taxes — are essential:

“What they won’t tell you is what they’re proposing means we wouldn’t fund our school services and safety,” O’Connell said. “We wouldn’t open a new police precinct in southeast Nashville, wouldn’t have the new police flex unit shrink the amount of time you have to wait when there’s an emergency, wouldn’t expand safety in schools.”

More: State of Metro full speech (PDF)

The State of Metro is mandated in the Metro Charter, and the speech is coordinated with the mayor’s annual budget proposal. In the coming two months, the Metro Council will be tasked with reviewing, amending and adopting the spending plan.

This speech is O’Connell’s second State of Metro since his election in 2023. His signature win as mayor, so far, was the strong passage of the transit improvement plan designed to update Nashville’s public transit, sidewalks and traffic signals. 

This is a developing story last updated at 6:10 p.m.