NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Nashville Mayor John Cooper has presented his budget proposal for next year, and now the next steps are in Metro Council's hands.
Mayor Cooper delivered his second State of Metro address on Thursday, where he highlighted his budget and policy priorities for the next fiscal year. Friday, Metro finance heard more details of his budget after he officially filed the budget.
However, the property tax rate could be a hang up. Cooper said it will be the third lowest of all time at $3.28.
But here's the thing, the low property tax rate proposed for Nashville doesn't necessarily mean homeowners will save any money, due to higher property appraisals.
Council Member Freddie O'Connell says while the tax rate can change every year, it historically only changes when the appraisal is done every four years. This is something he hopes to simplify when he and other council members meet about the budget.
"The thing I'm looking for is I want to stop having these difficult, confusing, frustrating conversations year-after-year about the rate. In the history of Metro, the way this has worked is you do this once and then you don't really talk about property tax again for four years. We've been talking about it for most of my time on council, which is exhausting for me and obviously exhausting for my constituents and those of my colleagues, as well,” O'Connell said.
Metro Council has until June 30 to approve a new budget and tax rate. If Metro Council doesn't act on the budget, then the mayor's budget goes into effect by default – that's only happened once in Metro’s history.
