50-Cent Property Tax Increase Proposed By Metro Councilmembers

NASHVILLE, TN -- Facing a status quo budget that includes a far-smaller-than-desired increase for Metro Schools and once again omits a long-promised cost-of-living pay increase for employees, a group of councilmembers are backing an eye-popping plan to raise property tax by 50 cents.

The effort, led by At-Large Councilman Bob Mendes, would increase the tax rate in the Urban Services District - broadly, the core of Davidson County that is, generally, the former city limits of Nashville proper - by 15.8 percent to $3.655 from $3.155. Thus, a home-owner in the USD would pay near $319 more on a home with Metro's median value of $255,000.

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Mendes told The Tennessean the plan, which also has the early support of At-large Councilwoman Sharon Hurt and Councilman Bill Pridemore, would generate about $150 million in revenue. It would be the first property tax rate increase since 2012.

Mendes told the paper that, historically, mayors have proposed tax increases in the year before a scheduled reappraisal. The recently completed Metrowide reappraisal showed a median property value increase of nearly 36 percent. By state law, local governments cannot collect more in property taxes solely by virtue of a reappraisal, so Metro was forced to drop its rate from $4.516 and in neither of her budgets did former Mayor Megan Barry propose a tax rate increase. The current tax rate is the lowest in Metro history. The previous low - $3.17 - was in effect for only the 1984-85 budget year and was then increased by 75 cents.

The only time in Metro five-decade history prior to Barry did a mayor not ask for an increase before a reappraisal was in 2009, during the recession, when then-mayor Karl Dean kept the rate steady.

"Almost every time we've ever done a reassessment, we've done a simultaneous rate change, or increase revenue, and we didn't do that last year," Mendes told the paper. "We've only made that mistake two other times."

Among early detractors of the plan is Briley, whose office told The Tennessean "the budget we've proposed, including no tax increase, is in the best interest of the city."

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