The Tennessee Court of Appeals issued a ruling in the case Committee to Stop an Unfair Tax v. Freddie O’Connell on Tuesday which upheld a majority of a lower court’s previous ruling finding that the multi-billion dollar Nashville transit plan can be legally implemented.
In November, Davidson County voters approved a half-cent increase to the city’s sales tax to fund the “Choose How You Move” transit plan.
Last month, the Tennessee Court of Appeals heard arguments in the case challenging the transit plan brought by the Committee to Stop an UnFair Tax—the group that sued Metro Nashville, arguing that “Choose How You Move” is illegal under the IMPROVE Act, a Tennessee law that empowers cities to levy sales taxes to fund mass transit—after the plaintiffs appealed a previous Davidson County Chancery Court ruling that dismissed the case.
On Tuesday, Court of Appeals Judges Andy D. Bennett, Frank G. Clement, Jr., and W. Neal McBrayer issued a 16-page ruling affirming a majority of the trial court’s ruling except ruling that the funding collected for the transit plan cannot be used to purchase land for housing development or parks.
“The trial court found that the plan and ballot question complied with the [IMPROVE] Act in all respects. We affirm, except that we find that the surcharge in the transit improvement plan cannot be used for the acquisition of land for housing and parks,” the judges wrote in Tuesday’s ruling.
Regarding Metro’s intent to purchase land for housing development and parks as part of the funds generated for the transit plan, the Court of Appeals found that such projects do not fall under the IMPROVE Act’s parameters.
“We fail to see how the purchase of property for housing development and parks is consistent with Tenn. Code Ann. § 67-4-3201(3)…Metro will have to find other funds to accomplish this goal. We reverse the trial court’s decision on the purchase of property for housing and parks,” the judges wrote.
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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.
The vote FOR this plan was a 65.5% mandate. Its time to stop fighting against it.
I wonder why no one is talking about this. “The U.S. government has significant loan repayments scheduled for 2025. Approximately $9.2 trillion of federal debt is set to mature this year, representing about 25% of the total national debt. This substantial amount requires the Treasury to refinance or repay these obligations, posing a considerable fiscal challenge.”
Freddie’s Folly gets a court go ahead. Nashville is going farther down the tubes.
If a major portion of the referendum has been ruled invalid, the entire referendum should be nullified and/or returned to the voters. The Mayor and Council lied about the true cost of the project, a major portion has now been found to be illegal, and the reliance on Federal funding for a large portion is in doubt – raising the cost to the citizens of Nashville/Davidson even higher
Meanwhile, Freddie and Co will continue to waste taxpayer money to sue the Trump Administration, begging the courts to force the provision of “grant” money – money that, at $37T in debt, will be paid for by our grandkids’ grandkids’ tax payments.