Mayor Megan Barry delivered her first State of Metro Friday where she highlighted the need to adequately address the city’s growth and change.
During the address, she announced details of Nashville's first ever $2 billion budget. She also discussed several ideas, meant to keep Nashville booming.
"I believe that growth can be equitable," the Mayor said. "It can be sustainable. It can be about people as much as it is about buildings."
Her budget focused on four main parts: education, teen violence, transportation and affordable housing. She began the budget by announcing a 3.1 percent increase for state workers. A portion of the increased budget will be funded by a $161 million increase in city revenue.
"With these increases, we're going to be able to do some things that I think are overdue things," she added.
41 percent of the Mayor's budget will go to education, she claimed. Money will go to funding a new school, new libraries and literacy programs. Metro teachers will also see a pay increase.
Monday's bus station shooting was also referenced, when the Mayor began discussing teen violence. She referred to the quadruple shooting as a "jarring reminder," that youth violence is on the rise.
"We don't have all the answers, but we've taken the first step: asking the right questions," the Mayor said following her address.
She announced the creation of a program that aims to get 10,000 youth in jobs or internships by 2017. While some of those jobs will be through metro government, the Mayor called on other companies to step in to help.
"We can't do this alone," Barry said. "It's going to take private, public and not for profit sectors coming together to make this very ambitious goal a reality."
Protestors were outside Ascend Amphitheater, pushing the Mayor to do more when it comes to affordable housing. Demonstrators were seen holding signs that said things like, "Housing Not Handcuffs."
The Mayor, however, stood by her stance to remove the homeless population from Ft. Negley. The Mayor also said her budget adds $10 million to the Barnes Fund for Affordable housing, bringing it to $16 million.
"At the end of the day, my vision for Nashville is not open encampments on public parks," she said.
When it comes to transportation and creating a plan for public transportation, no funding was set aside for that. The Mayor called on state lawmakers to come up with ways to fund a project.
"We know this is not a blue, red, suburban, urban, Democrat, Republican problem," the Mayor said. "Transit impacts all of us. We have to have a funding mechanism that includes the region and the state to solve this."
The Mayor is hoping the legislature comes up with a plan during its next session, which begins in January.
