The Independent Metropolitan Board of Equalization (MBOE) is set to hear from local Nashville business owners and homeowners on Tuesday who say soaring property assessments and higher tax rates are leaving some neighborhood landmarks with tax bills they cannot afford.
“We are not trying to avoid paying our fair share of taxes,” local business owner Christian Paro told NewsChannel 5 in an early March interview. “We are asking for accountability and short‑term solutions before more of our neighborhood businesses are forced to close.”
Paro, along with more than 100 fellow business owners, helped form the Nashville Tax Coalition, a grassroots group pushing back against unsustainable property tax increases in Davidson County.
In 2020, then‑Mayor John Cooper and the far-left Metro Council approved a budget that raised the countywide property tax rate by about 34 percent — the largest increase since Nashville and Davidson County consolidated in 1968. The rate in the Urban Services District rose from roughly $3.155 to $4.221 per $100 of assessed value, while the rate in the General Services District rose from $2.755 to $3.788. Cooper said at the time that the increase was needed to “avoid a state takeover” and to fund schools, police, and basic city services after years without a tax hike.
The 2020 move sparked an unsuccessful referendum effort backed by community groups and business interests to cap future property tax hikes at 2 percent per year unless voters approved larger increases. The Greater Nashville REALTORS, who supported the cap, argued that the 34 percent jump should have been subject to direct voter approval and warned that similar increases could return without new limits.
Assessor of Property Vivian Wilhoite’s office announced in April 2025 that the county’s latest reappraisal produced a median 45 percent increase in property values since 2021, with typical gains ranging from the high 30s to more than 50 percent depending on the council district. “Our 2025 reappraisal reflects the exponential growth in Davidson County’s real estate market,” Wilhoite said when the new values were mailed to property owners in mid-April 2025.
Under Tennessee law, those higher values triggered a calculation to lower the certified tax rate to a “revenue‑neutral” level so Metro would not automatically collect more from existing property. After that reset, Metro leaders moved to raise the rate again, to $2.814 per $100 of assessed value in the Urban Services District, a 26 percent increase, and $2.782 in the General Services District, a 39 percent increase. “Had the Metro Council and Mayor not increased the tax rate above the certified tax rate, approximately half of Davidson County property owners would have received a tax decrease,” Wilhoite’s office said in a March statement.
Business owners say the combination of higher values and higher rates is now showing up in commercial leases and operating budgets. In a letter delivered to Mayor Freddie O’Connell and Wilhoite, coalition members warned that “dramatic increases in property tax bills” are being passed on to tenants and could “result in closures and job losses across neighborhoods” if nothing changes. They are asking Metro to let owners with pending appeals pay last year’s tax amount while their cases are heard, expand the Board of Equalization’s capacity, and rely more heavily on income‑based valuations in commercial disputes.
Some of the steepest increases have fallen on well‑known destinations. The owner of downtown’s Acme Feed & Seed told local media that the bar’s annual tax bill climbed from about $129,000 to roughly $600,000 after the latest reassessment, calling the new figure “unsustainable.” O’Connell ignited a firestorm of public criticism when he told Fox17, “It’s not up to me whether he keeps that business open. The market evolves. New businesses start even as beloved old businesses close.”
One of those businesses was The Pelican & Pig.
“It is with great heartbreak that we tell you Pelican & Pig has reached the end of the road. We have come to the very difficult decision that we cannot continue on as we have,” owners Nick and Audra Guidry announced in a social media post. “We owe so much to Nashville, and have been continually blessed by the people we’ve met, had the honor to employ, and have befriended along the way. We have always loved being a part of Nashville and we feel we gave it the best of us and what we had to offer.”
The strain extends beyond commercial properties. Wilhoite’s office says thousands of property owners have already engaged through outreach meetings, informal reviews and the formal appeals process. In social media posts and neighborhood meetings, some homeowners say they are cutting back on other expenses or considering moves to surrounding counties where housing costs and tax burdens remain lower.
Metro officials, meanwhile, say their hands are largely tied.
O’Connell told NewsChannel 5 that state law prohibits the city from deferring or waiving property tax payments while appeals are underway, though he has appointed additional members and alternates to the Board of Equalization, which hears formal challenges to property values.
“Our office is committed to helping every property owner understand their new value and exercise their right to appeal,” Wilhoite said as the 2025 notices went out.
The Board of Equalization is scheduled to meet on Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. at the Howard Office Building, 700 President Ronald Reagan Way, in downtown Nashville.
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Christina Botteri is the Executive Editor of The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow her on X at @christinakb.Â
I suspect many of these businesses have been supporting the very policies and politicians who have thrust this upon them. I’ll bet when time gets tough for their employees, they don’t encourage them to steal to cover the individual financial situation. No, in fact, when you or I get into a tightening financial situation, we do just that – we tighten our proverbial belt. These out of control Nashville politicians would rather “steal” from the individuals and businesses (whom they supposedly work for) and in fact increase their free-spending ways.
In 2027 we will have a unique opportunity to Turn Nashville on a Dime! It will take all of us, working together, setting aside petty differences, and, at least in the case of the Metro Council and Mayor’s office – ignoring the (D) that is printed in hidden ink next to the majority of them. Stop giving the Democrats control of this city and let’s take it back for the people!
The Democrats are coming for your taxes, just like all the other leftist states and cities and even leftist/”progressive” Europe is seeking and enacting taxes on capital gains. The Democrat Party MUST have MORE TAXES to fuel their socialist ideologies. The problem with Socialism, like Margaret Thatcher pointed out — “Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people’s money.”
It is only fair that Nashville MUST pay more for muslim foot washing stations and pay for those extremist ideologies to be taught in your schools, it is what you voted for when you voted Democrats in control of Nashville. More taxes for more socialism and more taxes for more crime! Your voters’ dreams are coming true.