Nashville Mayor John Cooper this week announced Order 10 from the Metro Public Health Department pertaining to alcohol.
Cooper’s order took effect Saturday.
According to a press release that Metro officials published on the city’s website, Order 10 prohibits the following:
• The open consumption or possession in an open container of any alcoholic beverage outside of permitted establishments.
• Any sale of alcohol by a restaurant except when sold for consumption on premises or for off-premises delivery.
• Any sale of alcohol by a limited service or restaurant or bar except when sold for off-premises delivery.
• All curbside and to-go sales of alcoholic beverages.
As The Tennessee Star reported last month, because of COVID-19, Nashville business owners will likely have their worst year ever. Cooper, though, said that they and others in the city must still pay dramatically higher property taxes.
As reported, Nashville Metro Council members voted to impose a 34 percent property tax hike upon city residents.
“As I have said many times before, it is terrible. It is awful. It’s necessary,” Cooper said last month.
“The loss of revenue, every single other locality is going to deal with the same problem. The loss of sales tax revenue, of which local government is often built on, requires the shift in revenue, frankly. Otherwise you are going to have massive furloughing of the whole city government.”
Cooper went on to say that Nashville’s new tax rate is below what it was three years ago.
“This is not some spike that is afflicting our local businesses. This is unfortunately having to pull back what was the lowest tax rate in the lowest-taxed state in the lowest-taxed city in America. It’s terrible, and it couldn’t be worse timing for us to do it, but any other course would jeopardize our ability to be in business as a city. One of the things that happened on July 1 is we are open for business as a city. Otherwise we would have run out of cash. We would not be able to pay our employees. We would not be able to pay public health or police or teachers or be in any position to be back to work,” Cooper said.
“I get it. You are able to say it’s the worst possible time. Of course it is. But the history of Nashville budget practices really had put us already in a hole and then the COVID put us into an additional hole. We had to walk back, frankly, an abnormally low tax rate to what is still below our historic rate and below what it was even three years ago.”
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “John Cooper” by nashville.gov.
Liquor is EVIL!! EVIL Liquor needs to be banned. We don’t NEED it—sinners just want it. Good to restrict additional evil during a pandemic. Excellent job, Mayor!!
the idiot bus finally arrived
Nashville will fail just like Chicago, New York, LA, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, the common denominator, they are all run by Commie leftist, the State of Tennessee needs to put the city into receivership and force them to balance their budget and quit playing the dictatorship role.
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.
H. L. Mencken
Nashville get what it deserves.
Recall this Commie before Nashville becomes another San Francisco!
LOL…restricts yet another revenue stream. I feel sorry for the poor souls who live in Nashville that didn’t vote for this idiot. Expect another round of tax increases along with raises for Metro employees next year.
It remains to the vast citizenry of Nashville to either vote out or recall these fiscal Nymphomaniacs. Otherwise, you have no one to blame but yourselves. If furloughs or layoffs are needed instead, so be it. Except for public safety, who else in the city provides an essential service?
Can someone please tell me what would be so bad about furloughing part of the city government? (Wasn’t there already talk about removing funds from the police?)
I work for the State government, we’re already having to deal with, ahem, “budget cuts”. My program was already cut to the bone, and it looks like it’s going to lose a limb or two before this is all over.
Drake the Commie Mayors acting puppet police chief will bring you ice cream and feed you, but no alcohol. What BS, Democratic crazy. Cooper needs to be mentally evaluated also, he is a nut!
Attack of the Corona Karens
https://www.newswars.com/attack-of-the-corona-karens/
Dude! Simply keep your hands washed and go back to work. The response to COVID-19 is a hoax and uncalled for, unprecedented. It’s no different than any of the other 200 viruses that cause respiratory illness. Cold and flu season is right around the corner. What are you going to do then you little coward?