Nashville Mayor Proposes 32% Property Tax Hike (!!!) (sales, rental, mortgages)

[jjbradleynyc]

This is a massive tax hike proposal, but probably not gonna make it through without being whittled down considerably.

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashvill..._news_headline

[MTFan]

Im sure they never even considered or proposed furloughing metro employees. Hell, even having them take a temporary pay cut would free up a lot of money in the budget. Us in the private world are losing our business, taking pay cuts and getting laid off, but heaven forbid the metro employees share in these difficult times to get the budget straitened out.

[artemis]

Originally Posted by MTFan

Im sure they never even considered or proposed furloughing metro employees. Hell, even having them take a temporary pay cut would free up a lot of money in the budget. Us in the private world are losing our business, taking pay cuts and getting laid off, but heaven forbid the metro employees share in these difficult times to get the budget straitened out.

They're already working short-staffed.

[BirdieBelle]

Originally Posted by artemis

They're already working short-staffed.

Yep, and this is not in response to a short-term situation like the pandemic, but moreso to deal with the "deferred maintenance" of problems that have existed for years.

[Serious Conversation]

Public employees everywhere are going to take a beating because of the shortfall in revenue. You can't keep people on with greatly diminished revenue coming in.

[doc1]

32% seems to be a huge jump.

I understand that revenues are down in part due to pvt sector workers not ponying up while they're not spending money or, in some cases, having no income at all.

I personally know a few people in that position with families and mortgages.

Does it have to be permanent? In another article he says this budget is a "crisis budget" When the crisis is over will he propose lowering the tax rate?

I'm weary of politicians getting more and more money. They always find ways to spend it and always say they "need" more.

To answer MTFan's question:

".... Metro employees will forgo pay raises or cost of living adjustments, but this budget avoids the layoffs and pay cuts set to occur in hundreds of other cities nationwide....."

https://breaking911.com/nashville-de...amid-pandemic/

[septimus]

My property taxes went down by over $1k in 2016 and they should have never been cut when we were selling assets to cover budget shortfalls.

The rooster has come home to roost for Metro at the worst possible time. Sales tax revenues are projected to be down by over $500m because of the lost of tourism. As much as I can't stand the scooters, I wish there were tourist roaming downtown right now.

[Bamaman1]

I cannot imagine what Mayor Cooper is going through in his first year as mayor. He takes over a city in terrible financial condition. Before he can make changes in government, he's hit with a huge cut in sales tax revenues with Covid shutting down the huge convention and tourism business.

So much of the spending is already allotted for, and cannot be stopped.

And the Mayor is burdened with an indecisive 40 person city council that's trying to protect their citizens. We're talking about a city council that's not made up of people with Masters degrees in Government or even accountants. These are regular every day people with regular jobs. They may not have the knowledge and intellect to even understand where Metro stands and what needs to be done.

We all need to pray for Nashville and Mayor Cooper. It's really difficult to be in charge of a fast growing, dynamic city that's completely devoid of cash. And unfortunately budget cuts require personnel layoffs. If I was a Metro employee, I'd be looking to change jobs immediately.

[N.Cal]

And too bad that he is hamstrung into not being able to use the surplus from the music city center. Seems he was a little prescient.

https://www.tennessean.com/story/new...nue/737803002/

At-large Councilman John Cooper, a frequent critic of Nashville's municipal*financing decisions,*said that Metro could identify many city services that support visitors: from trash collection to road repairs, short-term rental code enforcement and greenways.*The visitor economy has moved beyond*downtown to neighborhoods such as*12South, East Nashville and the Gulch.

“That’s the fundamental conversation in the city, in a way,” Cooper said. “What costs do we have now, that we didn’t have, in supporting this surprisingly large amount of tourist business.”

“There’s not a branch of government that isn’t affected by the 15 million tourists that we have,” he added. “You could take some of the burden off of the general taxpayer.”

[artemis]

Originally Posted by Bamaman1

I cannot imagine what Mayor Cooper is going through in his first year as mayor. He takes over a city in terrible financial condition. Before he can make changes in government, he's hit with a huge cut in sales tax revenues with Covid shutting down the huge convention and tourism business.

So much of the spending is already allotted for, and cannot be stopped.

And the Mayor is burdened with an indecisive 40 person city council that's trying to protect their citizens. We're talking about a city council that's not made up of people with Masters degrees in Government or even accountants. These are regular every day people with regular jobs. They may not have the knowledge and intellect to even understand where Metro stands and what needs to be done.

We all need to pray for Nashville and Mayor Cooper. It's really difficult to be in charge of a fast growing, dynamic city that's completely devoid of cash. And unfortunately budget cuts require personnel layoffs. If I was a Metro employee, I'd be looking to change jobs immediately.

I don't feel sorry for him. He knew what he was getting into.

Karl Dean spent money like a drunken moron. He even spent the FEMA money that was sent to our town in order to build the ampitheatre.

No raises for teachers & firemen, can't keep enough cops on the job. It's not going to go away overnite.