Cha-Ching! Metro Nashville Council Members Want to Hike Property Tax Rate by 16 Percent

Nashville property owners may be carrying lighter wallets soon as some members of the council want to raise property tax rates by 50 cents. Councilman Bob Mendes has proposed the tax hike as a way to pay for government employee cost-of-living raises and for schools and make up a budget shortfall, NewsChannel 5 reports. He wants the bill to come forward next week and pass before the Memorial Day weekend. Councilwoman Sharon Hurt and Councilman Bill Pridemore have backed Mendes’ plan, The Tennessean reports. The plan would raise the combined property tax rate in the Urban Services District from $3.155 to $3.655 per $100 of assessed value, a 15.9-percent hike, and the General Services rate by 49 cents from $2.755 to  $3.245. A home appraised at $250,000 in the Urban Services District would pay about $319 more per year in property taxes. Mendes’ justification is that last year Metro lowered the rate to a low of $3.15 following a reassessment, NewsChannel 5 said, and added Nashvillians would want to honor the city’s obligations. The council has made budget mistakes that have lead to the problem and will study across-the-board budget cuts next year. The budget must be approved before July 1. Mayor…

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Carol Swain Commentary: Why Mayor Barry Should Resign

The following are the full remarks as prepared by Carol Swain for delivery at Tuesday evening’s Resign Now! Megan Barry Rally: We are here because leadership matters and so does good government. We believe our city and state and our children would be best served by the immediate resignation of Democrat Mayor Megan Barry. Her illicit affair with a married subordinate and the on-going investigations concerning her abuse of power and the people’s pocketbook make her unsuitable to carry out the duties of the office. We are not here to judge her extramarital affair, for which she has apologized and asked for the forgiveness of God and the people of Nashville. Mayor Barry correctly stated God will forgive her, and many of us have already done so. I count myself as one of these. Forgiveness is an expectation and duty of Christians, if we expect God to forgive us of our sins. We are all sinners in need of a Savior. We can ask for and expect forgiveness when we confess and turn from sin. But, in forgiveness, we are left with the messy details of our wrongdoing and must deal with unexpected and unintended consequences of unethical and sometimes…

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