He Who Keeps The Taxman At Bay
🪧 A lifetime of activism · WeGo safety · The week in streaming · Much more!
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Nashville seems to be well on its way to becoming even more like California. But anti-tax activist Ben Cunningham isn't discouraged. He's seen ups and downs in the political landscape since he moved here in 1982. He's been actively working to prevent greater taxes since 2000. Now, as we come into 2025, Cunningham still holds fast to a childlike sense of wonder that he says keeps the fighting spirit of hope alive in himself. I spoke with him about his activism journey to this point, and what he sees going forward.
In the mid-90s, Cunningham was the owner of a company that provided internet service. For a long time, programming was his passion: ”It was more of an excuse for me to program than anything else,” he explains, adding that he's “always been a nerd.” The company wasn't massive, and running it was hard work. Many nights, Cunningham would personally go to the office at 3 a.m. to restart the servers.
He sold that company in 1999, and while he didn't become wealthy, he says he “made enough to be independent.” Those skills in tech were almost immediately transferred into activism after the election of Don Sundquist in 2000. Sundquist had campaigned on the promise of no income tax, but within six weeks, flipped completely. “Everybody felt just a huge betrayal,” recalls Cunningham. Thus began a two-year battle against a state income tax.
Cunningham fondly looks back on how “people came by the thousands to drive around the Capital and honk their horns.” At the time, he was one of the only activists with the background to do things like build a website, post photos to it, and use email as an organization tool. This was deeply affecting moment for Cunningham, who says it was “the first time [he] could use the tools [he'd] learned for [his] passion.”
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🚍 WeGo Safety And Efficiency During last week’s roundtable, the mayor briefly addressed the violence cropping up around Nashville’s transit centers and on WeGo buses. When asked whether Metro will employ safety personnel on buses, O’Connell said the city plans to take a multi-pronged approach. “WeGo and MNPD have been working through a Comprehensive Safety Review that we're hoping we should have recommendations within the next several weeks,” he explained. “That would fit into our Choose How You Move implementation so that you have a mix of technology and personnel to support the safety throughout the network.”
While the new bus safety initiatives await a final review, AI has already been supplementing the efficiency of WeGo. According to O’Connell, the same Vanderbilt associate professor, Abhishek Dubey, who recently helped Tennessee land federal funding to integrate AI technology to improve transit efficiency across the state, has also secured other funding through the National Innovation Alliance in the past: “We've got great partnerships with Vanderbilt, from a research perspective, that has meant NDOT has had some support on their implementation of the SMART grant with TSU, Vanderbilt, and…the University of Tennessee Academy, as well.” He went on to explain that Vanderbilt has already been supporting WeGo by integrating AI-based tools through applied research.
☔️ Helene: Picking Up The Pieces State officials have concluded that the hurricane’s official death toll includes 18 Tennesseans. According to the Tennessee Department of Health, two people on that list are still missing. So far, KnoxNews has only been able to verify 14 of the deaths through autopsy reports and conversations with East Tennesseans impacted by the storm. The media outlet has also highlighted the lack of news coverage and unanswered questions that remain concerning the tragic loss of life. “Without news coverage of the flooding at Impact Plastics, for instance, the public would be unaware of the factors that led to the six deaths there,” reads an article published this morning.
Last week, the Biden administration increased the funding available to help Tennessee address the devastation caused by Helene. Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell announced on December 6 that the federal cost-share has been “increased from 75 percent to 100 percent for debris removal and emergency protective measures, including direct federal assistance, for 120 days of the state’s choosing within the first 180 days from the start of the incident period.”
💸 About That Participatory Budgeting Money Another round of American Rescue Plan Act funds set aside for the city’s Participatory Budgeting process were allocated last week. The council earmarked $400,000 of the $10 million in ARPA for Nashville’s Tennessee College of Applied Technology to create a workforce development apprenticeship program.
Of the 24 projects selected by Nashvillians to fund, the council has also approved resolutions for $80,000 to help with the upkeep, marketing, community outreach expansion, and music education of Jefferson Street Sound Museum, and $30,675 for the creation of two Nashville Sites driving tours in North Nashville through the Metropolitan Historical Commission Foundation.
Despite extending the Participatory Budget voting window, a $600,000 marketing budget, and allowing teenagers and non-citizens to weigh in on the allocation of $10 million in APRA funding last fall, the final ballot count was dismal. In December 2023, Mayor O’Connell expressed his reservations about going forward with a similar process in the future. “I expect if it does go forward, it will be revised pretty significantly,” he said. “We're not seeing—even with hundreds of thousands of dollars in marketing—we are not seeing particularly heavy voting rates on participatory budgeting.” Given the public scrutiny at the time, the Metro Finance Department also decided to double-check whether the PB’s Steering Committee properly adhered to ARPA regulations.
DEVELOPMENT
- TailGate Brewery opened Music City Taps inside Bridgestone Arena (NBJ)
- Belle Meade Kroger to close January 31 (Post)
- Cummins Station planned for Mexican restaurant Vidorra (Post)
- NYC entertainment consulting firm, Elevate, plans Nashville office (Post)
✹ THIS WEEK IN STREAMING (December 10th)
Hundreds of Beavers (Hulu) “In this supernatural epic action-comedy, a drunken applejack salesman is thrust into the frigid wilderness and has to trap his way out to survive. Will he go from Zero to Hero, become North America’s greatest fur trapper, and defeat HUNDREDS OF BEAVERS?” The year’s most fun indie gem makes a case for itself as the greatest winter movie of all time thanks to its Looney Tunes-meets-Daniel Boone aesthetic.
The Day of the Jackal (Peacock): The TV reboot of the 1970s' most influential globetrotting assassin property finds Eddie Redmayne chasing one last job as British intelligence closes in. It may not be original, but, as its showing at the Golden Globe nominations earlier this week indicates, it’s one of the most engaging series to come out in quite some time. .
Gremlins (Max) Bring a little anarchy into the Christmas season with, in the words of Rotten Tomatoes, the best yuletide “Holiday/Fantasy/Mystery & Thriller/Comedy/Horror” flick ever put to film. When a cuddly pet rodent from the East spawns an army of little green monsters that hide in electronics, it’s up to a plucky teen and a buttoned-up Phoebe Cates to save Christmas. Besides being an absolute blast, it offers the most succinct examination of post-WWII “yellow peril” to come out of the Age of Reagan.
THINGS TO DO
View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.
📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.
🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.
👨🏻🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide and yearly festival guide.
TONIGHT
🎙️ BMI Presents: In The Round with Abigail Rose, Sid Dorey, Annie DiRusso & Lilly Hart @ The Bluebird Cafe, 6p, $17.30, Info
🎸 Honky Tonk Tuesday @ Eastside Bowl, 8p, $10, Info
+ two-step lessons @ 7p, The Cowpokes @ 8p
🎸 Cole Ritter and the Night Owls @ The Underdog, 11:30p, Free, Info
📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.
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