Nashville will get to vote on funding transit this year. Here's what to know
Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell announced Thursday that Nashvillians should expect to see a transit funding vote on their ballots in November.
Specific details on transportation projects and the tax raises to pay for them will be available in the coming weeks. To successfully get a transit referendum on the ballot, O'Connell's administration will need to finalize a plan quickly, solicit public feedback and obtain approval from a third-party public accounting firm, the state comptroller and Metro Council.
O'Connell said he expects to present a plan in greater detail in March, including a ballpark figure of the anticipated cost (likely to be in the billions, spread over 30 years).
Here's what to know.
What is a transit referendum?
A transit referendum is a countywide vote on a tax raise to fund mass transit projects. Voters in Metro Nashville will have the opportunity to approve or reject a proposed tax increase to pay for a specified set of transit projects shaped by city leaders.
What's the timeline?
O'Connell's administration will have a matter of months to pull together a plan and get it approved to appear on voters' ballots.
At the first meeting of O'Connell's Community Advisory Committee, Director of Transportation Planning Michael Briggs shared a rough timeline:
February 29: Determine infrastructure and transit service improvements
March 29: Determine financial plan for audit
May 31: Financial certification from State Comptroller
June 7: Transit Improvement Plan/Ordinance filed for Metro Council review
August 6: Metro Council final reading and vote
August 22: Transit Improvement Plan ballot language must be submitted to the Davidson County Election Commission
October 16: Early voting begins
November 5: Election Day
What will voters see on ballots in November?
If all goes to plan, voters will see a 250-word summary of the proposed tax surcharges and the proposed transit projects on their Nov. 5 ballots. Voters will have the option to vote in favor of the surcharges or against.
Specific tax surcharges have not yet been proposed.
While the details of the proposed transit projects have yet to be released, O'Connell indicated the program will likely include the following:
Improvements to Nashville's bus system, potentially including bus rapid transit lanes on select corridors
A high-capacity corridor to the airport
A network of neighborhood transit centers
Upgraded traffic signals that will work in concert with Nashville's new traffic management center
Funding for sidewalks
Regional cooperation
O'Connell has also indicated the transit program will not be primarily focused on light rail.
Where can transit funding come from?
State law allows certain local governments (including Metro Nashville) to levy a surcharge on several local taxes to collect revenue to fund transit improvements. Those taxes include:
local option sales tax
business tax
motor vehicle tax
local rental car tax
tourist accommodation or hotel occupancy tax
residential development tax
Any combination of surcharges on those taxes can be proposed to finance the projects proposed in Metro's plan. State law limits how much each type of tax can be raised this way.
For example, the 2018 "Let's Move Nashville" plan would have increased Nashville's sales tax, hotel tax, business and excise tax, and car rental tax to amass $5.4 billion in funding.
Who has to sign off on this?
State law requires a public feedback process and multiple rounds of approval, including:
An independent, certified public accounting firm (the selection of which must be approved by the state comptroller) must review and approve a financing plan for the transit projects proposed
The transit improvement plan and its 250-word summary that will appear on the ballot must be approved by Metro Council
The financing and operations of the program must be approved by the state comptroller
Davidson County voters will have the final say in their Nov. 5 votes
O'Connell's administration will engage with Metro Council members, local organizations, a technical advisory committee and a community advisory committee in the coming weeks to solicit feedback as the final plan comes together, he told The Tennessean.
What happened last time?
This will be Nashville's second attempt at a transit referendum.
Former Mayor Megan Barry's administration launched the first transit referendum attempt, dubbed "Let's Move Nashville," after the state legislature granted certain cities and counties the ability to do so in 2017.
The $5.4 billion transit program heavily featured light rail alongside bus system improvements and included a plan for an underground tunnel that some Nashvillians deemed impractical.
O'Connell has said that while he ultimately supported the 2018 plan, he believes it was "probably over-invested in light rail."
In the lead-up to the 2018 election, "Let's Move Nashville" faced an organized opposition campaign that gained more momentum when Barry, who had been the face of the referendum push, resigned in January 2018 amid scandal.
Ultimately, Nashville voters rejected the measure with a 64% to 36% vote.
An examination of the referendum's collapse by New York-based Transit Center found the plan and campaign were shaped too hastily and without sufficient public engagement.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville will get to vote on funding transit. Here's what to know
