Americans for Prosperity Tells Music City Officials to ‘Stop the Shenanigans’ on Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act

 

Americans for Prosperity-Tennessee (AFP-TN) officials this week accused members of the Nashville Election Commission of delaying a vote on the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act and urged them to verify it.

This, according to a press release that members of AFP-TN published on their website.

As reported last month, this referendum, if approved, would roll back Nashville Mayor John Cooper’s 34-37 percent tax increase. The referendum would also limit property tax rate increases to 2 percent every year without voters approving it.

In the press release, AFP-TN State Director Tori Venable said “Metro officials continue to act in secrecy to thwart the will of the people.”

“Nashville has had a transparency problem for far too long with taxpayer-funded handouts and sweetheart deals to politically connected companies. Now that the cash cow has been put out to pasture, our city is feeling the pressure of reckless spending and corporate welfare that put us in our current position. Responsibly using tax dollars requires cutting budgets, not raising taxes,” Venable said.

“People feel they have been lied to by Mayor Cooper who previously said lawmakers shouldn’t ask taxpayers for more money when they aren’t properly managing the money they already have. Nashvillians have been hit with a massive tax hike while government officials refused to cut their own pay raises or tighten the city’s belt, as Nashville families have been forced to do. The only path out of this dilemma is complete transparency and giving Nashville voters the chance to be heard at the ballot box in December.”

Venable also said that before Cooper starts “threatening to strip essential services like police, fire, and education” he should “take a hard look at all of their pet projects to assess if now is the time to take on billions of more debt.”

“Nashville needs to get its priorities in order — the mayor’s threats to defund public services first just might spur more Nashvillians to call his bluff,” Venable said.

As The Tennessee Star reported last week, members of the Metro Nashville Election Commission met privately last Friday. At least one of the five commission members refused to say what they discussed, even though it was government business.

Nashville attorney Jim Roberts told The Tennessee Star Saturday that he suspects commission members met to discuss ways to undermine the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act.

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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].