NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — A group of different organizations plan to rally at City Hall Tuesday to demand some controversial changes to Metro's budget.
The groups say it's a call to action because they feel that they have been ignored with some of the requests that they've presented to local leaders, so they're planning to take their demands to a public budget hearing tonight to tell council personally some of the changes they're demanding.
The group spearheading the rally is called the Nashville People's Budget Coalition. Their demands range from re-allocation of funds to major investments in criminal justice reform.
They're calling on council to divest up to $15 million dollars away from Metro police to be used for other means like raising the cost of living adjustment for Metro workers to at least 5%, investing $880,000 to improve people's chances at freedom by improving the quality of legal representation for people charged with serious felonies as well as $10 million to fund restorative justice programming for youth and families.
They're also calling on leaders to devote $30 million to affordable housing through the Barnes Fund and other means.
These are all topics they say they plan to bring up in the rally outside city hall that will start at 5 p.m. Council meets at 6:30 p.m.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
