Organizers are pushing again for Davidson County voters to have the chance to vote for the proposed Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act referendum.
If voters approve it, the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act would roll back Nashville Mayor John Cooper’s 34 to 37 percent tax increase.
As The Tennessee Star reported in November, Nashville attorney Jim Roberts fought the Davidson County Election Commission to get the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act referendum on last year’s December 5 ballot. But Davidson County Chancery Court Judge Ellen Hobbs Lyle ruled against arguments in favor of the Act, thus giving members of the Davidson County Election Commission what they wanted.
Roberts previously told The Star about a backup plan and predicted that he and his supporters would have it ready in late February.
And Roberts said Monday — a few weeks ahead of schedule — that he was ready.
“We went back and whether we agreed with what the judge said or not, my advice to everybody was it would take two years to litigate it properly. I said let’s change it. Let’s do what the judge says and so we modified it to what the requirements were,” Roberts said.
“Now, I have no doubt that Metro will come in and say ‘Well, now we have some new requirements,’ but it’s going to be a lot harder for them to do that.”
Roberts said that organizers have sent out about 200,000 ballots. They need to receive 33,000 ballot signatures for the measure to go to a referendum for voters.
The new petition says that “Metro’s property tax revenues in 2020 were substantially higher than projected.”
“Despite higher revenue, Metro Council refused to even consider lowering the massive 34-37 percent property tax hike,” the petition said.
The petition proposes that voters go to the polls on either May 28 or June 14 of this year.
“The actual best date would be May 28 because that is before what we calculate is the very first day the budget could be approved by the Metro Council,” Roberts said this week.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Nashville City Hall” by euthman. CC BY-SA 2.0.
I have received my ballot and will be sending in back pronto! My property taxes went up $400 this year! That is OUTRAGEOUS!
Nashvillians and State of Tennessee better stop Cooper, following him and the Democrat Socialists nationally, I am of the opinion the huge increase in taxes along with Tn Legislature Bill to essentially improve Public Housing… that the huge amount of money will be spent to house the coming flood of Illegal liens soon to be Citizen “Democrat Voters.” bleeding all Tennessee welfare dry! I could be wrong. Anyone taking odds?