Ben Cunningham, founder of the Nashville Tea Party, is warning Nashvillians about Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s multi-billion dollar transit plan, which will be presented to voters this November via ballot referendum.
O’Connell’s transit plan, “Choose How You Move: An All-Access Pass to Sidewalks, Signals, Service, and Safety,” would be funded by a half-cent increase in the city’s sales tax to construct miles of new sidewalks, bus stops, transit centers, parking facilities, and upgraded traffic signals throughout Nashville.
The Metro Nashville Council unanimously approved the mayor’s transit plan last week, paving the way for the plan to be presented to Nashville voters in November.
Cunningham has consistently pointed out numerous concerns with O’Connell’s plan, including how it appears to be illegal under the IMPROVE Act. This bill passed the Tennessee General Assembly in 2017 and permitted local governments to seek a dedicated funding source via surcharge to support mass transportation projects through a local referendum.
While O’Connell’s plan to expand WeGo, the city’s public bus service, would be legal under the IMPROVE Act, Cunningham said the mayor’s additional proposals included in his plan – including traffic lights, sidewalks, and the purchase of property for “affordable housing” – are not permitted under the 2017 law.
Cunningham said he believes the mayor added additional incentives to the plan other than expanding WeGo services to gain more votes in support of his plan, as former Mayor Megan Barry’s 2018 transit plan was overwhelmingly struck down by voters.
“Our current mayor, Freddie O’Connell, knew he didn’t want to repeat the boondoggle of 2018. So he started adding elements to the transit plan like adding ornaments on a Christmas tree so he could get votes,” Cunningham explained on Tuesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
“The only mass transit system we’ve got in Nashville is this awful bus system, the WeGo bus system, that carries less than 1 percent of commuters. It’s slow, it’s a fixed route, and 99.5 percent choose not to use it. But it’s the only thing he could fund according to the IMPROVE Act and he knew that wouldn’t pass, so he had to add all these other elements onto it – sidewalks and traffic light enhancements, bicycle improvements, land purchasing for affordable housing. The problem, of course, is that none of that is authorized under the IMPROVE Act,” Cunningham added.
Regarding the mayor’s plan to expand WeGo services, Cunningham pointed out Nashvillians’ lack of enthusiasm for using the city’s public transportation service.
“Nobody’s going to ride the bus. Nobody wants to ride the bus. It’s unsafe. Lots of crime. And it’s crazy to expect that people are going to use it because they have to use their car to go to the parking lot next to the bus station, get on the bus, take a fixed route on a slow bus to somewhere, and then they have to get from that point to their work. So it’s clearly crazy that he would expect that. I don’t think he expects it. It was just simply the only thing that was authorized under the IMPROVE Act and in order to get it passed, he had to,” Cunningham said.
Overall, Cunnigham said that O’Connell’s plan, as it currently stands passed by the Metro Council ready to be presented to voters, is “purely illegal.”
“He’s proposing many things that are completely illegal and we’re calling his hand and I hope other people will begin to do that also because it’s just purely illegal,” Cunningham said.
Watch the full interview:
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Freddie O’Connell” by Freddie O’Connell, Mayor of Metropolitan Nashville & Davidson County. Background Photo “Nashville Traffic” by Cheryl A. Austin. CC BY-SA 4.0.
