Live from Nashville, Tennessee Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m.– Leahy was joined on the newsmakers line by Nashville Smart’s Lonnie Spivak.
At the top of the second hour, Spivak reviewed recent Triton Polling data which showed that almost a third of Davidson County registered voters disapproved of Mayor John Cooper’s 32% property tax increase. He was certain that with such unfavorable polling results that Mayor John Cooper should definitely rethink his direction.
Leahy: We are joined now by our good friend Lonnie Spivak who heads up a group called Nashville Smart which is a local 501-C4. Good morning Lonnie.
Spivak: Good morning Michael. Thanks for having me on this morning.
Leahy: It’s always a pleasure to have you on the program, Lonnie. You are a good friend for many years. Lonnie, you’ve got a poll that Nashville Smart conducted about Mayor Cooper’s proposed 32% property tax increase. Unlike other polls that came out from other organizations this looks like this proposal is in big trouble. Give us the highlights.
Spivak: We commissioned Triton Polling because we felt that their numbers have always been accurate for the polling for the Nashville area. And what the polls show is that about 66% of registered voters in Davidson County are against Mayor Cooper’s plan to raise property taxes by 32%.
Leahy: And only 25% support it.
Spivak: Yes. There was a 10% undecided with only 25% supporting the property tax increase. We went on to poll what the voters thought if it would affect affordable housing. And 68% thought it would affect affordable housing in a negative way with only 10% of the people thinking that it would be a positive thing for affordable housing in Davidson County.
Leahy: These poll numbers look remarkably similar to the poll numbers back in May of 2018 when The Tennessee Star used the same research firm that you used, Triton Polling and Research, which is first-rate. We did a poll in April of 2018 that said the transit tax increase would go down by a 2-1 margin and in fact it did go down by a 2 to one margin.
This seems very similar and these guys from the other results of the poll they seem to have been very accurate and it makes an awful lot of sense to me. Go through some of the other numbers that would reinforce the accuracy of the poll.
Spivak: One of the things that we asked was a kind of control question. We did a breakdown of the party for Davidson County.
Leahy: Well you are talking about the party breakdown. 28% Republican, 53% Democrat in the poll. 769 registered voters were asked and the questions were posed in a two day period on Tuesday and Friday. These are how polls should be done. Polls are a snapshot. So those numbers Lonnie to me seem to make sense.
Spivak: Yes. For me personally, I was actually a little surprised. I was expecting the number to be probably closer to three to one against. And I know I’m not the typical voter in Davidson County. To see two-thirds of the voters against the property tax increase should make Mayor Cooper kind of question his direction.
Leahy: Yes. And you know the other thing to point out that I think adds to the credibility of the poll if you look at the presidential horse race you did between Biden and Trump which showed right now if the election were held today in Davidson County Joe Biden would get 60% of the vote and Donald Trump would get 32%. That’s about what it was in 2016 right with Hillary Clinton.
Spivak: Yes. It’s a pretty good mirror. And another control question is that we have a historical record on what the voters and their overall feeling are of Senator Blackburn. And it was the same. She was on in the 25% I believe.
Leahy: Not very popular. Very popular among the 95 counties in the state. 92 of the counties she’s very popular but a couple of the urban counties like Davidson, Shelby, and Hamilton she’s not quite as popular. But that does seem to ring true to me.
Spivak: Yes. And we use those questions mainly just so we can have control questions. Questions that we feel like we know the answer to like historical data that we gathered. So when we see those numbers come through consistently we know that our numbers for the real question polling on the property tax.
Listen to the full second hour here:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “John Cooper” by John Cooper.
Cooper and his liberal cohorts only consider poll numbers when they reflect their established positions. The guy was a loser from Day 1. Now Nashville is having to live with its choice. A bad choice.