The people behind the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act said Friday that they have obtained 14,000 signatures for a referendum on the matter and have filed those signatures with the Metro Nashville Clerk’s Office.
As The Tennessee Star reported last month, organizers are pushing again for Davidson County voters to have the chance to vote for the proposed Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act. If voters approve it, the Nashville Taxpayer Protection Act would roll back Nashville Mayor John Cooper’s 34 to 37 percent tax increase.
As reported in November, 27,000 Nashvillians signed the first petition, which Metro Nashville officials fought in court — successfully so.
Nashville attorney Jim Roberts told The Star Friday that he and other organizers needed between 11,500 to 12,140 signatures to succeed.
So why did fewer people sign the petition this time?
“I think the snow hurt us. A lot. The petitions hit people’s mailboxes right before the snow hit. That hurt us. They didn’t get out and get other people to sign it,” Roberts said.
“There was some voter apathy. People felt like they did everything they were supposed to do [the first time] and Metro screwed them. Maybe I was stupid to do this, but when I announced that we had mailed out 230,000 petitions, Metro began a pretty concerted effort to sabotage us. They started a real disinformation campaign, so we sort of went quiet after that to not antagonize them.”
As reported in November, 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.
The new petition said “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 new petition proposed that voters go to the polls on either May 28 or June 14 of this year.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
