Ben Cunningham, founder of the Nashville Tea Party, said Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s transit plan, which will be on the November ballot, will inevitably lead to property tax increases.
Last month, O’Connell officially announced that his long-awaited transit plan will be on the November 5 ballot, however, he did not release any information regarding what the plan entails.
Cunningham said O’Connell is currently working with one of the same “greenie” firms – HDR Inc. – that drafted the last transit referendum that failed to pass in 2018 for this year’s new referendum.
“It’s interesting, it basically just says all the people that were involved in 2018 are in charge of this,” Cunningham said on Tuesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
In regards to financing, it has previously been reported that a half-cent increase to the city’s sales tax will likely be required to fund the transit plan, which Cunningham said will cost $100 million per year.
However, Cunningham said that the mayor will “leverage federal funds,” which will inevitably lead to property tax increases as those funds run out.
“The really scary part about this is it does not involve light rail in this first iteration, but [the mayor] specifically says he’s going to use this money to leverage federal funds and we all know what that means,” Cunningham explained. “They’re going to leverage this to get billions of federal funds, and then when those federal funds run out – which is what we’re seeing all across the country now as these transit agencies ‘fall off physical cliffs’ because the federal money has run out – property taxes increase.”
“They will come back and they will fill the gap with property tax increases. We will have property tax increases as far as the eye can see,” Cunningham added.
Cunningham also noted that 2025 is a reappraisal year, explaining how voters in November will essentially be voting on two property tax increases.
“We know when the next property tax increase will be, it will be in 2025. So when people vote in 2024 on the transit referendum, they’ll actually be voting for two tax increases. They’ll be voting for the sales tax increase, and then they’ll be voting for the 2025 property tax increase because you know what 2025 is? It’s a reappraisal year. That’s when they’re going to raise property taxes,” Cunningham said.
“It’s going to be a whopper because Nashville is still in a very bad financial position. Jason Mumpower, the comptroller, almost came in and took over Nashville’s finances two years ago because they were in such bad shape. Debt is way up, the debt for Nashville is huge. They’re going to keep spending money… leveraging federal money to come in, and then that hole is going to have to be filled by local property taxes,” Cunningham added.
Responding to Cunningham’s note that less than one percent of passenger miles in Nashville are provided by transit, host Michael Patrick Leahy branded the mayor’s plan as a “greendoggle.”
“We are throwing the gauntlet down on the mayor’s greendoggle,” Leahy said, noting how O’Connell’s transit plan will include funds for bike paths, pedestrian paths, and even a light rail system in the years to come.
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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.
