The 53-cent property tax increase proposed last week by Mayor Karl Dean would be Nashville’s first in seven years, but it would be the fifth in the past 15.
In 1997, then-Mayor Phil Bredesen requested a 73-cent tax increase, which the Metro Council ultimately pared back to 54 cents per $100 of assessed value. The council vote was 29-9 in favor.
A year later, Bredesen was back with another request — which the council granted by a 27-13 vote — for a 12-cent increase to pay for a $206 million school desegregation plan.
(The council also agreed, 32-5, to a 74-cent tax increase in 1993, during Bredesen’s first term as mayor. He had requested 77 cents.)
Bill Purcell, who succeeded Bredesen as mayor in 1999, proposed and won approval for a tax increase in each of his two terms. The first, in 2001, raised the tax rate by 88 cents. The council approved it 38-2.
Four years later, Purcell proposed an 84-cent tax hike, adjusted the request to 80 cents and saw the council agree to 67 cents on a 26-11 vote. The city has not raised property taxes since then.
With the exception of the 1998 tax hike for the desegregation plan, Bredesen’s and Purcell’s tax increases all came in the fiscal year after a countywide property reappraisal. Dean, who refrained from seeking an increase as the economic downturn clouded his first term, is now asking for one the year before a reappraisal, which could raise the tax rate even higher if the overall property tax base has lost value.
Dean said his proposal would raise $100 million in new revenue, offsetting some mandatory budget increases and allowing the city to do some new things, like hiring 100 new teachers and paying them $5,000 more than rookie teachers now get. He dropped the proposed tax increase in the General Services District to 48 cents after legal concerns arose following questions from The Tennessean and others.
— Michael Cass
Tennessean
