Metro Nashville officials are evaluating whether to spend $13.8 million in new infrastructure costs to allow a private company, Oracle, to set up shop in Davidson County.
Metro Nashville At-Large Council Member Steve Glover told The Tennessee Star that council members on Tuesday approved an agreement — on the second reading — to invest the money. They then referred it for a final reading.
“The money basically was already committed. The governor and the state are dumping a lot of [state] money in it. It will create more jobs,” Glover said.
“Believe me, with the mess that we’re in financially we come out ahead on it. But I don’t understand why we are debating it so hard because we basically had the money that we have already approved. The basics were already done.”
The project is in District Five Council Member Sean Parker’s district. Parker declined to speak to The Star.
Oracle spokesman Greg Lunsford also declined a request for comment Wednesday. Staff for Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee also did not return a request for comment.
Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (ECD) spokeswoman Jennifer McEachern said in an email that ECD officials have not provided Oracle with any state incentives.
According to its Facebook page, Oracle is a cloud technology company that provides computing infrastructure and software.
Glover said that state officials are investing a lot of money to bring Oracle to the area— the amount of which he did not specify.
“They want to bring jobs in. Let’s not kid ourselves. Nashville has not exactly done a very good job over the last year of getting our city open back up. We’re the last one to do it. We need this stuff right now,” Glover told The Star.
“A lot of people are unemployed right. People are nervous as hell about losing their houses and where they live. I was not going to spend more money, but this was already committed. When they start bringing in these huge capital projects, I am not going to support it until we get our spending under control. [But] this one was already done.”
The project, Glover went on to say, is “a win for the city in the long run.”
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Frankly, I am very surprised and extremely disappointed in Mr. Glover. Nashville cannot fill the currently unfilled IT jobs. A sure invitation to an influx of H1-B workers.
i thought nashville was broke?
any guarantee they’ll hire american citizens?
Sure. Keep the city closed down and add more jobs. Spend more money that you will never see returned. Hmmmm, sounds like a mighty good fiscal plan. BTW, can you guys do my taxes for me? What could possibly go wrong?
Oracle is going to keep up with who gets there covid vaccine ! Does this sound like a good idea to you ! A company that does data for a virus that they can’t isolate
A “win for the city”? Oracle only hires H1B south east Asians to do the engineering work. Of course, they’ll need minimum wage janitors, so in that sense it’s a great for the city…
James – It sounds like your experience in the world of IT mirrors mine. I saw many good paying jobs given to H1-B folks because the big corporations “couldn’t find” suitable American citizens to fill the jobs. Of course those corporations never had to defend that position.
I support this project and Councilman Glover! This is a win for Nashville and the State! Councilman Glover for Congressional District 5! The new district will do away with the Liberal Jim Cooper!!!!