NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Tuesday night at Nashville's City Hall, Metro leaders are set to decide how to spend your tax money by adopting a new budget.
We know that many of you are bracing for higher property taxes.
While the two most likely options for the budget won't change your tax bill, one council member is proposing a plan to soften the blow by reducing the increase a bit.
“I have a lot of elderly people in my neighborhood, here in Crieve Hall that have been in these houses since they were built in the '50s and early '60s that are telling me they can't withstand another tax increase,” said Council Member Courtney Johnston, who represents District 26 on the Metro Council.
After hearing from the folks she represents, Johnston decided to file a substitute spending plan toward the very end of budget season.
Here's how it works: The mayor offers a recommended budget, and the chair of Metro Council's Budget and Finance Committee, Delishia Porterfield, files a substitute budget in response.
Part of the process includes hearing from many people, including the public, advocates, city departments, and more.
The overall cost for both of the budgets is about $3.8 billion, and they both require the same property tax rate to fund them.
However, any member of the council can file a substitute budget, which Council Member Johnston did.
One big difference — Johnston said her plan would cost most taxpayers about 28% less.
According to Johnston, her plan makes that possible by lessening the proposed increases in the other budget options, including $54 million from Metro Nashville Public Schools.
"I'm not cutting them by $54 million, I'm increasing by $54 million less, but I'm still increasing $77.5 million over last year's budget,” Johnston said.
Many departments in her proposal received cuts to the proposed increase in funding this way, including more than $4 million from police, around $6 million from the fire department, and about $1 million from Nashville Public Library.
Johnston believes it's possible for folks in the metro to receive the same services they have now while paying a little less.
"So my purpose was to try to still have an operating budget that met the needs of the city,” Johnston said.
However, some on the council don't think that's possible or worth it for the amount people could save.
"If a house is valued at about $550,000, the alternate budget that was proposed would save them about 20 bucks a month," said Council Member Delishia Porterfield, Council Member At Large.
According to Porterfield, beyond that, she thinks Johnston's proposal could cause bigger problems.
"Everyone wants to save money, but not at the cost of defunding our public education and destabilizing our public safety sector and destabilizing our city government as a whole," Porterfield said.
I asked Johnston about Porterfield's concern for services and the overall impact Johnston's budget could have on the city.
"I don't think services would be affected. We obviously operated this entire year on this budget, which is not anywhere near what the mayor is talking about this year, and somehow we made it through this year. It's amazing. I don't know how we did that, right? So we are increasing everyone's budget, and so services, I just disagree that that would be affected in a negative way, and I certainly wouldn't ever do that," Johnston said.
Porterfield also raised concern that Johnston's budget could impact the city's bond rating; I also asked Johnston about that.
"There's probably very few people on that council who are more fiscally minded than I am. I don't think this is going to impact our bond rating. I was very diligent about that. The only reduction in those types of funds that would affect it is the Sustainability Fund, which is brand new — what I'm offering is still more than our policy minimums," Johnston said.
Click the following links for more information on the possible budgets this year.
Council Member Porterfield's Substitute Budget
Council Member Johnston's Substitute Budget
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at robb.coles@newschannel5.com.
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