Tag: NoTax4Tracks

Final Push Begins to Defeat $9 Billion Nashville Transit Plan as Voters Go to the Polls Today

Jason M. Reynolds
skeptical transit plan man

NoTax4Tracks, a PAC that seeks alternatives to Metro Nashville’s $9 billion light rail plan, is making a final push to defeat the measure on today’s ballot. “From the beginning we knew that this transit plan had problems. We’ve been around government long enough to know that when you hide the price on page 55 of a plan, there is something fishy,” the group said in a newsletter Monday. NoTax4Tracks has previously pointed out that the light rail system would only serve 3 percent of Davidson County’s population and not cover most of the high-traffic areas. “The more we looked, the more we saw the fatal flaws, like it really doesn’t solve the congestion and hits those who can least afford it with one the biggest sales tax of any major city.” The group said a focus group in February provided three key messages for undecided voters: Does this really fix congestion and what areas does it cover? How much is this actually going to cost? How long will the streets be torn up to build this? NoTax4Tracks responded with fact-based commercials. “Online, if you can get 25% of the people to watch a thirty second commercial, you have a home run. Over…

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Transit Plan Early Voting Ends, Opponents Make Final Push For Election Day

Jason M. Reynolds

Early voting on Nashville’s light rail transit plan ended Thursday, April 26, but one group advocating for alternative transit planning is making a final push for Election Day. There is one more opportunity to vote on the transit plan as Election Day is Tuesday, May 1. In a newsletter Thursday, the NoTax4Tracks PAC said, “This plan is incredibly flawed and costly. What’s worse, it’s being forced onto Davidson County families and businesses before we have seen any alternatives. There are better, less expensive options than making families pay $43,000 in new taxes for a light rail system that won’t even reach them.” In a separate communication, NoTax4Tracks referred people to listen to an episode of the Nashville Sounding Board podcast discussing the light rail transit plan. Nashville Metro council members Freddie O’Connell and Angie Henderson were guests. O’Connell said, “I think that as a councilmember trying to do the best job of representing my constituents… I will say I think a mistake was made by the administration in preparing this plan was a lack of council engagement.” Henderson said, “Absolutely, I concur with that.” James Pratt wrote a letter to the editor that appeared in The Tennessean on Wednesday, April…

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Early Voting Opens In Crucial Nashville Transit Referendum

Jason M. Reynolds

Early voting has begun in Nashville-Davidson County, and groups seeking an alternative to the $9 billion light rail transit plan are urging voters to head to the polls early. Election Day — and the transit referendum —are May 1, but early voting began April 10 and will run through April 26. Poll locations for early voting are posted on the NoTax4Tracks website. “We need as many people as possible to vote against this costly and fiscally irresponsible transit plan,” the group says in a newsletter. “Otherwise, Davidson County will have the highest sales tax of any major city and households will pay an extra $43,000 for a transit plan that does NOT solve the traffic congestion problem and does NOT serve the whole county. “The other side is making false claims so it is essential we fight back to provide residents with all the facts. Reaching out and communicating with potential voters is the most important thing we can do during this critical time.” NoTax4Tracks also reports that the neighborhoods with the worst traffic will see little relief from light rail. Better Transit For Nashville posted what it calls the Top 100 reasons to vote against the light rail plan.…

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Nashville’s High Traffic Neighborhoods Have Low Chance of Relief From Light Rail

Jason M. Reynolds

Dear Nashville resident: Does your neighborhood have bad traffic? If you answered yes, the city’s $9 billion light rail transit plan probably will not help you, one organization says. NoTax4Tracks says only 3 percent of Nashville’s population will be served by the proposed light rail transit plan. The group has posted a map that shows the haves and have-nots when it comes to service. The have-nots that have high traffic counts include Bordeaux, Whites Creek, W. Trinity, Haynes Area, Parkwood, Dickerson Pike, Metrocenter, Donelson, McGavock, Hermitage, Old Hickory, Mt. Juliet, Green Hills, Bellevue, Belmont, 12 South, West End, Antioch, Haywood Lane, Antioch Pike, Mt. View Road, Blue Hole Road, Cane Ridge and Priest Lake. NoTax4Tracks urges residents to share copies of the map with others. “We need everyone to see what they’d be getting and paying for if this passes May 1: Only 3% of the population will be served and families in Davidson County would have to pay $43,608 more in taxes. That is a huge amount for a light rail system that leaves out so many neighborhoods.” Better Transit For Nashville posted a top 100 list of why residents should vote against the plan on May 1. Reason…

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Lights, Camera, Action: Transit Plan Opponents Air First Commercial

Jason M. Reynolds

NoTax4Tracks, a political action committee, announced it is starting a television campaign today, Feb. 20, to encourage Nashville-Davidson County voters to say no to Mayor Megan Barry’s $9 billion transit plan on the May 1 ballot. “We know people are concerned about paying one of the highest sales taxes in the country for a light rail system that does little to help congestion,” said Jeff Eller, spokesman for the campaign.  “We’re starting television advertising now, so voters fully understand how much it will cost and how little it will do. That’s why the commercial makes it clear, if this plan passes, Nashville will become Taxville.” The commercial can be viewed here. The commercial will air on Channels 2, 4, 5 and 17, with a heavy focus on news and “high information seekers,” the PAC said. This will be the first of several commercials NoTax4Tracks will air prior to the May 1 election.      

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Metro Nashville Finance Director: It Is Challenging To Spend More Money Than City Takes In

Jason M. Reynolds

“Cash is king.” That economic saying is something Metro Nashville may be learning as the finance director warns the city cannot keep spending money as if it is minting it. Metro Finance Director Talia Lomax-O’dneal has warned department heads that they cannot request new spending measures in the 2018-2019 budget, The Tennessean reports. The city’s current $2.2 billion operating budget was a $122 million, a 5.9 percent increase over the previous year. The 2016-17 operating budget was a $121 million, a 6.1 percent increase over the previous year. Mayor Megan Barry’s current budget took Metro Nashville over the $2 billion mark for the first time. “Prudent financial management requires a periodic look for efficiencies and savings opportunities, and there are several fiscal challenges for the 2018 fiscal year,” Lomax-O’dneal said in her letter to department heads. Those “challenges” include tax collections that have returned to normal levels, dwindling reserve balances and increased debt payment obligations. Lomax-O’dneal’s letter failed to mention two issues, one a current budget “challenge,” and the other a potential “challenge.” The former is the $17.1 million lifeline the Metro Council voted last month to give Nashville General Hospital. The latter is the proposed $9 billion light rail…

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Mayor Megan Barry Says Her $9 Billion Transit Plan ‘Is About Connecting People’

Admin

Nashville Mayor Megan Barry, who ten days ago admitted to carrying on a two year long extramarital affair with her Metro Nashville police officer bodyguard, Sgt. Rob Forrest, showed on Thursday that she wants every voter in Nashville/Davidson County to know that she continues to support her much maligned $9 billion transit plan. With no apparent sense of irony, Mayor Barry promoted her appearance at a Donelson-Hermitage Chamber of Commerce event Thursday in a tweet later in the day in which she said, in part, that her transit plan “is about connecting people.” “Today I spoke at the Donelson-Hermitage Chamber of Commerce about your transit plan, which will be on the ballot May 1 (early voting starts April 11), and all the benefits it will create,” she wrote, adding, “Transit is about connecting people to what they need jobs, schools, health care and much more.” Today I spoke to the Donelson-Hermitage Chamber of Commerce about our transit plan, which will be on the ballot May 1 (early voting starts April 11), and all the benefits it will create. Transit is about connecting people to what they need jobs, schools, health care and much more pic.twitter.com/Wcn93KYxmx — Megan Barry (@MayorMeganBarry) February 8, 2018…

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$9 Billion Transit Backers Try New Poll To Fish For Support

Jason M. Reynolds

One citizens’ group says the city and its backers are conducting yet another poll to try to show support for the Let’s Move Nashville Transit Improvement Plan. NoTax4Tracks said in a press release that at least one of its people received a polling call regarding the $9 billion transit plan that includes light rail service. Questions include: Would this make you more or less likely to vote for the plan? 17 cents a day cost Comprehensive light rail, bus and other Neighborhood parking zones to get on and off Will run longer hours at night If seniors get a discount If out-of-towners pay for most of it through the hotel tax It would eliminate the need to go downtown to go to neighborhood to neighborhood Which are important to you when you consider your vote: would cost $5.4 billion that we would have the highest sales tax that sales tax is regressive and would hurt lower income communities Which people are meaningful to you in making this decision: David Fox Megan Barry Someone else News of the new poll broke hours before word came of Mayor Megan Barry’s extra-marital affair with the head of her security detail, so it is…

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Does State Of The Union Address Indicate Bad News For Nashville Transit Funding?

Jason M. Reynolds

President Donald Trump is expected to announce in tonight’s State of the Union address $200 billion in federal funding for infrastructure and other projects. But one PAC that opposes Nashville’s transit plan says that is not necessarily good news for Mayor Megan Barry. Politico reports the president had promised a $1 trillion, 10-year blueprint to rebuild American roads, railroads, bridges and airports. State, local and private investors would have to cough up more money than normally would be the case under the president’s proposal. “Instead of the grand, New Deal-style public works program that Trump’s eye-popping price tag implies, Democratic lawmakers and mayors fear the plan would set up a vicious, zero-sum scramble for a relatively meager amount of federal cash — while forcing cities and states to scrounge up more of their own money, bringing a surge of privately financed toll roads, and shredding regulations in the name of building projects faster,” Politico says. The administration says $200 billion is not a large amount for such a plan but adds it would draw state, local and private funds. In addition to land transportation infrastructure, identified possible projects include rural broadband service, veterans hospitals and commercial spaceflight. The White House is…

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Rail Line Could Make Nashville Budget Sick, Unable To Fund Retiree Insurance

Jason M. Reynolds

Retired Metro Nashville employees’ benefits are in jeopardy, one PAC says, even as Mayor Megan Barry’s supporters have no trouble raising funds from the business community to try to persuade voters to pay $9 billion for a transit system. NoTax4Tracks says in a press release that Metro Nashville has a health insurance funding shortfall for retirees to the tune of nearly $3 billion. “The good news is you are probably going to get whatever is in your pension. That part of the retirement plan is fairly well funded. The bad news is that health insurance coverage you were promised …. maybe not so much.” Health insurance, a part of “other post employment benefits (OPEB), are funded at 0 percent, the press release says, citing an October 2017 letter from Metro’s director of finance, Talia Lomax-O’dneal. The shortfall is nothing new. A Jan. 26, 2015 story from the Tennessean says the issue dates to 2002. Many of the retirement benefits are paid from the city’s budget and costs grew from 13 percent of the total property tax revenue to 25 percent in 2015. The story cites a report from The Pew Charitable Trusts that says the health care plan faces a long-term shortfall…

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Experts at Beacon Center’s ‘Off Track: What’s Wrong With Nashville’s Transit Plan & What We Should Do Instead’ Summit Slam Mayor Barry’s Scheme

Laura Baigert

NASHVILLE, Tennessee — The Beacon Center of Tennessee hosted a free conference open to the public on Saturday featuring the nation’s foremost experts discussing “Off Track: What’s Wrong with Nashville’s Transit Plan & What We Should Do Instead.” The title reflects the sentiment of attendees, primarily interested citizens versus special interest groups, that there is a congestion problem in the greater Nashville area that needs a solution, but one that is more efficient and cost effective than the $9 billion Let’s Move Nashville plan being put to referendum on May 1. The event included two power-house panels, the first on “What’s Wrong with the Nashville Plan,” featuring Randal O’Toole, Senior Fellow of the Cato Institute; Michael Sargent, Policy Analyst, Transportation and Infrastructures from the Heritage Foundation; and, Ron Shultis, Policy Coordinator of the Beacon Center of Tennessee, moderated by Ralph Bristol, former WTN 99.7 Nashville Morning News Host. The second panel included Transportation Policy Analyst Baruch Feigenbaum from the Reason Foundation; Marc Scribner, Senior Fellow of Competitive Enterprise Institute; and Emily Hamilton, Policy Research Manager, Mercatus Center, moderated by Beacon Center of Tennessee President and CEO Justin Owen and focused on “A Better Plan for Nashville.” John Cerasulo, Chairman of…

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Nashville Metro Council Buries True Cost of $9 Billion Transit Plan

Jason M. Reynolds

A PAC opposed to a $9 billion transit plan calls Nashville Metro Council’s vote Tuesday a “shameful” effort to pull the wool over the voter’s (sic) eyes.” NoTax4Tracks made the statement in a press release in response to Metro Council voting 21-14 not to accept an amendment to the light rail transit plan that would have shown the $9 billion cost on the May 1 ballot. The Tennessee Star broke the latest story on Mayor Megan Barry’s plan Wednesday morning. Once the amendment failed, the council voted on the Barry administration’s favored language for the referendum, citing a price tag of just over $5.3 billion. The council voted 30-6, with three not voting, to create the ballot language. The third and final reading will be Feb. 6. NoTax4Tracks said, “We know the city and the pro-light rail groups leaned hard on council members today. They did so because their own polling and political advisors told them that if Cooper’s amendment passed, their entire plan was in big trouble. So, they laid the wood to the council. It’s clear, they’ll do just about anything to win.” Council member John Cooper proposed the ballot language for the city’s Transit Improvement Plan be open and transparent…

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Nashville Metro Council Plays Shell Game With Transit Costs

Jason M. Reynolds

The Metro Council voted Tuesday to not disclose the true cost of Mayor Megan Barry’s light rail transit plan to voters on the May 1 referendum. Metro Councilmembers John Cooper and Tanaka Vercher had asked that the May ballot language include the full $9-billion-dollar costs. They proposed the amendment that Metro Council voted on Tuesday night during the plan’s second reading. The amendment is available here. The council voted 21-14 not to accept the amendment, according to a spokesman for NoTax4Tracks, a PAC that opposes the transit plan. There will be one final reading, but it is not immediately clear if amendments will be allowed, the spokesman says. That vote could come in as early as two weeks. Once the amendment failed, the council voted on the Barry administration’s favored language for the referendum, citing a price tag of just over $5.3 billion. The council voted 30-6, with three not voting, to create the ballot language, according to Barry’s Twitter feed. NoTax4Tracks PAC on Tuesday had announced their support for the proposed amendment’s effort to let voters know the full cost of the city’s light rail transit plan. “The city does not want voters to know the full costs of the light rail…

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Nashville Would Tie For Highest Sales Tax In Nation Under Mayor Barry’s Transit Plan

Jason M. Reynolds

From apparel to zip-up kitchen bags, merchandise sold in Nashville would bear some of the highest sales tax in the nation if the backers of the city’s proposed light rail system have their way, a PAC says. NoTax4Tracks is the PAC opposing the May 1 referendum in Nashville/Davidson County on a proposed increase in sales and hotel taxes.  The organization issued a press release over the weekend criticizing Mayor Megan Barry’s plan to raise the state-city sales tax to 10.25 percent to help finance the transit plan. The PAC says 10.25 percent would give Nashville the highest sales tax in the nation. According to the Tax Foundation, two cities currently are tied for the dubious honor of highest sales tax, and both have rates of 10.25 percent: Long Beach, California, and Chicago. Nashville would tie for the top spot in the nation’s most expensive cities in which to shop. Nashville is currently tied in ninth place on the Tax Foundation’s sales tax list. The city’s sales tax would increase by 0.5 percent from 9.25 percent to 9.75 percent, NoTax4Tracks says on its website. By 2023 the tax will have increased to 10.25 percent. “Whether it’s a senior living off of…

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Nashville Transit Polls? What Polls? Opposing Sides United In Not Talking

Jason M. Reynolds

Both sides in the fight over the upcoming May 1 referendum in Nashville/Davidson County on a proposed increase in sales and hotel taxes to fund Mayor Megan Barry’s $9 billion transit plan are playing their cards close to the vest in terms of releasing information. NoTax4Tracks, the PAC opposing Mayor Barry’s plan, sends out frequent email communications to the public with the headline “The Morning Line.” They don’t always acknowledge the information in those email communications when talking to the media. One case in point deals with polls that have been conducted on both sides. The Tennessean reported Oct. 12, 2017 on a Megan Barry mayoral campaign committee-financed poll. The telephone poll found that 57 percent of respondents supported a plan for mass transit projects, including light rail, that would be funded by higher sales taxes, hotel taxes, car registration fees and business taxes. Thirty-seven percent were opposed. One NoTax4Tracks email communication reads, “You may remember in October of last year, The Tennessean touted getting their hands on an ‘internal’ poll that showed the transit plan had 57% support. Their pollster, John Anazalone, is very good at what he does and we don’t doubt that number. But they apparently did only registered voters,…

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