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The Tennessee Conservative Staff –
Nashville residents will see a voting referendum for transit funding on the ballot in November.
Mayor Freddie O’Connell has not yet released the details of the plan, but he has noted that more than 70 recent studies of Nashville transportation have led to the creation of the plan which will concentrate on providing for “sidewalks, signals, service, and safety” across the Metro area.
According to a report from ThinkTennessee, Nashville is one of four major metropolitan areas in the U.S. that do not have specific funding set aside for transit. That report also cited a Forbes Home report that ranked Nashville as having the worst commute times of any metro area in the country.
“It’s time for Nashville to have the things that big cities are supposed to have,” O’Connell said. “It’s time for Nashville to build another tool to make it easier to stay here by having options that are less expensive and it’s time to build more sidewalks in more neighborhoods.”
Americans For Prosperity – Tennessee released a statement last week on the upcoming referendum:
“We’ll have to wait and see what all of the details are. We think Mayor O’Connell is a smart leader who will hopefully make an earnest effort to learn from the mistakes his predecessor made that led us to unfortunately having to kill the last transit plan. It was a bad deal for taxpayers. We hope Mayor O’Connell will offer a more responsible plan that respects already overburdened Davidson County taxpayers,” said AFP-TN State Director Tori Venable.
The previous transit proposal in 2018 would have included an increase in four taxes, including sales tax, to raise money for a $5.4 billion transit plan. AFP-TN used data software to help identify potential voters and encourage them to vote against the referendum. Nearly 2/3 of votes received were against the transit referendum at that time.
O’Connell says he will be working with WeGo and the Nashville Department of Transportation to come up with a completed plan in the next six weeks.
