Nashville’s Metro Council approved the city’s spending plan Tuesday, unanimously voting in support of Metro Council Budget Chair Delishia Porterfield’s substitute budget.
The Metro Council had until the end of the month to approve a substitute budget. If they could not agree, the mayor’s budget would have gone into effect.
However, at a media availability on Monday, O’Connell endorsed Porterfield’s alternative.
“My sense is that we worked with her and her committee collaboratively, not adversarially, and I appreciate her recognition that we gave Metro Council a strong starting point for their consideration of the budget,” O’Connell said. “I recommend that Metro Council pass the chair’s substitute.”
Heading into a tight budget year — predicted flat revenues left the city with a budget not far off from that of the previous year’s (despite inflation) — Mayor Freddie O’Connell put forth a $3.27 billion plan that asked Metro departments to reduce spending by 1.4%.
“I knew, even when I was still on Metro Council and even thinking about running, that the fiscal year 2025 operating budget was going to be tight, just given the circumstances,” O’Connell told WPLN News on Tuesday.
O’Connell’s budget was submitted prior to a public hearing that featured various funding requests. One of the loudest asks included an increased cost of living adjustment, or COLA, for Metro employees. (Mayor O’Connell’s budget supported a 3.5% adjustment, while many workers called for 5%.) Another was the Varsity Spending Plan, a $2 million restorative justice and violence prevention proposal from the Southern Movement Committee.
Last week, Porterfield proposed her alternative to the mayor’s plan, which added funding for both the COLA and the Varsity Spending Plan. Neither got all that they asked for — the COLA was bumped up to 4%, and the VSP was allocated $1 million. But Porterfield made it clear she was listening to residents’ requests.
“We were able to prioritize our community. We were able to prioritize safety and youth safety,” Porterfield told media on Monday. “We did not balance this on the backs of our employees, the way that we have unfortunately seen happen in previous years.”
The substitute budget also included funding for a host of other projects, like indigent defense, non-police emergency response programs, “housing navigators” to help Nashvillians facing eviction, multiple studies and more.
“You may be wondering, ‘How did we get there?’ Because if you were at any of these budget sessions, you heard that, time and time again, that we did not have the money to get there,” Porterfield told the council on Tuesday.
For these additional funds, Porterfield opted to dip into some of the city’s reserve funds, like the 4% reserve, judgments and losses, and the self-insured liability funds. However, she made it clear that the council would not be able to “tap them so low” again next year.
O’Connell’s earlier endorsement of Porterfield’s budget heralded the council’s widespread support during the meeting. Discussion of the bill quickly turned into an echo chamber of congratulatory messages for Porterfield.
“It took a leader that was very determined, that was very strategic, that brought everybody together and would not take no for an answer,” Councilmember Zulfat Suara said of Porterfield. “I think that’s what we needed.”
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