NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — At a speech Tuesday morning in front of hundreds in Nashville's business community, Mayor John Cooper used a term to describe the city's potentially dire financial situation, saying several times, Nashville was "in receivership" -- a specific financial term that means the state comptroller's office would be stepping in to rescue Metro Nashville's budget, deciding how to spend the city's tax dollars.
Cooper's office later walked back that term, saying the city was not, in fact in receivership, but some Metro Councilmembers worry the damage may have already been done.
"It's effectively a form of municipal bankruptcy," Metro Councilman Freddie O'Connell said of the term. "That's a very specific thing. It means we are no longer in control of our finances, like literally the state has taken control of our finances and has decided what bills to pay. That is not what is happening.
While the state has not taken that drastic step with Metro's money yet, the state comptroller's office had already rejected the city's current budget -- something that hadn't been done in the city's history.
"The Mayor mentioned receivership to illustrate the urgent nature of our city’s financial position and the state’s authority to take over our finances if we do not balance the budget," the Mayor's office said in a statement.
"Yes it's urgent, I understand its urgent," O'Connell said in response. "But we shouldn't use words that have specific meaning in a certain context to double down on the urgency."
O'Connell says he worries the mayor's speech, ahead of a budget presentation Wednesday, may scare businesses looking to move here.
"If they're looking at it and saying, 'Well, if the city is this bad off from a financial standpoint,' we will have concerns about schools and public safety and things that make a city go," O'Connell said.
