Nashville Tax Battle Hardens As Influential Council Members Team Up Against Mayor

The debate over raising property taxes in Nashville took another twist on Monday as two influential members of the Metro Council said they’ll now work together to try to pass a property tax increase.

Some of the additional money would be used for Metro Schools, public transit, and hiring police and firefighters. The proposal also puts more toward city debt and future pay increases for employees, and does not depend on the sale of parking meter management.

The two members — Budget Committee Chairwoman Tanaka Vercher and At-Large Councilman Bob Mendes — had previously been pushing competing budget ideas. Mendes said he’ll drop his and support Vercher’s, which seeks a 15.8% increase, pushing the rate up to $3.653 per $100 of assessed value.

“We’ve spent an exhaustive amount of time as it relates to finding inefficiencies — finding savings — in the budget. I have spreadsheet after spreadsheet and I can’t make the numbers work,” Vercher said.

Mayor David Briley tells WPLN he’s opposed to raising taxes and that he’s alarmed by the council’s scramble.

“The council is, I won’t say in secret, but without complete transparency, going to vote on the decision whether or not to raise over $150 million in property taxes,” Briley said. “What the council is considering now is about as far from transparent as you can get.”

The council is scheduled to vote on the budget Tuesday night, although some members have requested a deferral.

“People deserve longer to find out their property taxes are going up, and for how much, so they can let their elected officials know what they think,” said Councilman Jeremy Elrod. 

The city must pass its budget before July. Council members have been advised they could be called in for special meetings later in the month. If they do not pass an alternative, the mayor’s proposal would be adopted automatically.

“It’s not clear to me at all what the council is going to do,” Briley said. “It’s not clear, I think to them even, that they will have a quorum past [Tuesday].”

Briley would not say if he would veto a property tax increase.

Although Mendes and Vercher have teamed up, the council still has four budget proposals on the table — which is unusual. Based solely on the property tax rate, the proposals are:

• No tax increase (mayor’s budget)
• No tax increase (Councilman Russ Pulley)
• 11.1-cent increase to generate $34 million (Councilman Steve Glover)
• 49.8-cent increase to generate more than $146 million (Vercher)

At the budget committee meeting Tuesday night, the Vercher proposal drew the most support, with a  nonbinding vote recommending her plan 7-5. The Pulley and Glover budgets were roundly rejected, although members said they would still work on updates. 

Mayor Resisting Tax Hike

Briley’s $2.3 billion operating budget represents a 4.55% increase over last year, and would give Metro employees a 3% pay raise.

But it does not meet the full request of Metro Schools or the WeGo public transit agency, and it has drawn criticism for relying on the one-time sales of assets.

“It is in the city’s long-term best interests for the council and mayor only to ask for additional revenue when we we’ve had a transparent conversation about what we need money for and where it’s going to go,” Briley said.

Competing Budget Proposals

The budget proposals represent an array of differences.

The budget from  Pulley closely matches the mayor’s. It  shifts about $1 million to send some additional funds to Finance, Codes, Public Works, WeGo and some nonprofits.

Glover is proposing a tax increase of 3.5% mostly so Metro employees can get a pay raise of 6% instead of 3%. His plan includes more money for Metro’s low-income senior citizen tax assistance program.

Vercher — now backed by Mendes — would hire 20 full-time staff in the Metro Nashville Police Department and nine in the Nashville Fire Department. She would put more toward city debt; $6.15 million more toward WeGo; and increase community center hours.

Mendes on Monday provided an updated comparison chart of the proposals.

On a median home value of $265,000, the Vercher proposal would mean an increased annual tax payment of more than $300.

Mayor Critiques Council

In  a statement Friday, Briley criticized the tight time window that officials and the public will have to consider a property tax increase.

He doubled down on Monday, saying that a tax increase would be a surprise that many people would only find out about when they go to pay the bills next year.

“It’s not the right way to go about asking the people in Nashville to pay more for government services,” he said.

Briley said he’s been clear for months that he opposes a property tax increase.

“The fact that the council has waited until the very last minute in their process to actually move it forward, I think, is something they are going to have to accept responsibility for,” Briley said. “It’s not something that I did.”

He said he’s been meeting with council members for weeks and was surprised to see Vercher’s tax proposal.

“The easy thing for me to do in many respects would have been to propose a tax increase,” Briley said. “But the right thing to do as the city of Nashville is to work our way through this tight budget to have a complete, objective conversation about what we need to do as a city.”