Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s $3.1 billion “Choose How You Move” transportation improvement program is facing scrutiny from anti-tax activist Ben Cunningham.
The Metro Council unanimously approved the plan this week. The initiative will be on the November ballot.
Cunningham is challenging the plan’s legality, which aims to enhance Nashville’s transportation infrastructure. His argument centers on whether the proposed spending aligns with the provisions of the 2017 state law known as the Improve Act. This law permits local governments to establish dedicated funding sources for mass transit but has specific stipulations on allowable expenditures.
O’Connell told WKRN:
Council’s strong support for our transportation referendum puts Nashville on the doorstep of a great opportunity. Choose How You Move builds on more than 66,000 ideas submitted by Nashvillians over more than a decade, includes improvements in each Council district for all roadway users, and has the potential to unlock as much as $1.4 billion in state and federal funding throughout the life of the program so more of Nashville’s tax dollars return home to our city.
The news outlet reported that the plan proposes a half-cent sales tax increase to fund the following programs if Nashville voters approve the plan for it to take effect.
- 86 miles of sidewalk improvements
- 12 community transit centers
- 54 miles of upgraded corridors
- a 24/7/365 transit system
- 17 new Park & Ride facilities, meant to offer free parking for WeGo customers
- 35 miles of new and upgraded bicycle facilities
- 600 intersections to get traffic signal upgrades
Cunningham contends that many of the plan’s components, such as the new sidewalks and bike lanes, do not meet the legal criteria established by the Improve Act.
“It seems clear to me that his proposal is not authorized by the Improve Act,” Cunningham stated to Axios. He said he believes the law’s intent was solely to fund mass transit, not ancillary infrastructure.
Also, Cunningham notes that the 2018 transit proposal, which he opposed for financial reasons, complied with the law as it focused exclusively on bus routes and light rail.
Cunningham said on Tuesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Nobody’s going to ride the bus. Nobody wants to ride the bus. It’s unsafe. Lots of crime. And it’s crazy to expect that people are going to use it because they have to use their car to go to the parking lot next to the bus station, get on the bus, take a fixed route on a slow bus to somewhere, and then they have to get from that point to their work. So it’s clearly crazy that he would expect that. I don’t think he expects it. It was just simply the only thing that was authorized under the IMPROVE Act and in order to get it passed, he had to. He’s proposing many things that are completely illegal and we’re calling his hand and I hope other people will begin to do that also because it’s just purely illegal,” Cunningham said.
Michal Patrick Leahy sounded the alarm on his show by declaring that the only way to stop this illegal initiative is for someone from Nashville who has standing to file a lawsuit.
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Christy Kelly is a reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Christy on Twitter / X. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Freddie O’Connell” by Freddie O’Connell.
Laws do not apply to Freddie the Freeloader. He just wants to spend, spend, spend while taxing, taxing, taxing. Where is Megan Berry when we need her? All she wanted to do was have some private time in a cemetery with her BODY guard.