O'Connell's Property Tax Shell Game

The mayor's rhetoric around why your property tax bill climbed conveniently omits his role in the part that actually cost you money.

From Davis Hunt

Mayor Freddie O'Connell probably breathed a sigh of relief after Acme Feed & Seed became the poster child for the city's property tax debacle. Tom Morales and his downhome honky tonk may be beloved by the locals, but his bill being the highlight of how the reappraisal cycle affected tax bills in Nashville distracted from O'Connell's deft maneuver to smuggle in a tax hike.

An outlier, Acme's appraised value jumped 423 percent from the previous year, resulting in a property tax bill that nearly quintupled. Acme's outsized bill, however, is not representative of most residential properties and has provided some cover for O'Connell's proclamation that he instituted the lowest property tax rate in decades, the lowest rate among the largest cities in Tennessee, and one of the lowest in the country.

The mayor deflected blame for bill increases onto the rise in home values across the city, impugning the assessor’s office. "It's complicated talking about appraisals, equalization, and the impact on tax, especially because two things are true at once," O'Connell said of his budget proposal last year.

“The median home in Davidson County is now 45 percent more valuable than it was when last appraised, and that means when we set the new tax rate, many of us will have increased costs, even as we're setting the lowest overall property tax rate in Nashville since 1972," he added.

But this isn't all as complicated as O'Connell makes it out to be. A more truthful retelling looks something like this: the Tennessee Comptroller set the lowest property tax rate in Nashville's history, and O'Connell raised it to fund the largest budget in Metro's history.

Every year, the council adopts a tax levy ordinance, setting the rate on properties in the city. Every four years, the Assessor of Property reviews all those properties and issues a revaluation by conducting a "thorough analysis of the current real estate market."

After the assessor assigns the new values, the state comptroller certifies a new rate. This rate is called the certified tax rate. It’s set to ensure a reappraisal alone can never raise what the city collects. The council can adopt that rate, or vote to go above it.

This year the certified rate came in at $2.222 for the Urban Services District, down from $3.254 the prior year. 

If the council hadn't touched it, your bill would rise or fall depending on how your property moved against everyone else's. Beat the county average, and you pay more. Trail it, and you pay less. Appraisal gains this cycle concentrated at the top of the residential market, which means most Nashville homeowners were in line for a wash or a cut.

The decision to go above the certified rate is informed entirely by the mayor's budget proposal. Last year, the mayor's budget called for nearly $500M in additional spending for schools, affordable housing, pay raises, and the continuation of COVID-era programs funded through now-expired American Rescue Plan funds.

The budget and finance chair at the time, Delishia Porterfield, had to find the revenue. Property taxes are the single largest source of revenue for the city, and all it takes is a simple majority vote to increase the amount of revenue they generate.

So, Porterfield proposed the rate hike, and the council adopted it with a 29-9 vote, increasing the tax levy on properties in the city by 26 percent.

The public conversation around property taxes has mostly centered on commercial businesses. Restaurant closures have consistently made the headlines, and groups such as the Property Tax Coalition have formed to actively lobby for a more sensible approach to the reappraisal process. 

Higher property valuations generally result in steeper tax increases for businesses than for residential properties because commercial properties are taxed on 40 percent of the assessed value. In comparison, residential properties are taxed on only 25 percent.

For the majority of homeowners, bill increases were due more to the mayor’s rate hike than the reappraisal.

Absent the rate hike, 72 percent of residential properties would’ve seen their bill rise no more than 5 percent, and 55 percent would’ve seen their bills decrease. 

So to recap, the Comptroller set the lowest rate in Nashville's history – which is what would've happened after the reappraisal under any mayor. O'Connell then raised that rate to fund some extra stuff – including, oddly enough, affordable housing – and distracted you from this fact by pointing to home value increases, hoping you'd be too stupid to notice.

If you want to look at a clean breakdown of how the reappraisal and rate hike each affected your bill, you can use our property tax calculator on any property in Davidson County.

✹ PROPERTY TAX CALCULATOR

Use our handy new tool to see what contributed to your property tax bill increase: the reappraisal or the rate hike. (Try It Out)

✹ THE LAST LAUGH

The eighth installment in Tales from the Westside.

From Rachel Gladstone

I have never been a pill-popper. I’m more of a good glass of wine, hit on a joint kind of girl. I can’t understand the thrill of the pill because for me, there is no thrill. There’s only sleep. And it’s not a restful, dreamy kind of sleep; it’s more like the sleep of the dead from which I awake hung over, my hair standing on end like the Bride of Frankenstein with a long, crusty trail of drool caked to the side of my face.

Half a Valium renders me unconscious for a good 12 hours. And even though Benadryl should be innocuous, for me, this little pink pill is the legal doppelganger of the Quaalude, which, by the way, I’ve never tried. I wouldn’t be partying like it was 1999 (as a decades-old song proclaimed), I’d be partying like I was 99.

I was living life as a pill-free woman who didn’t wake up every morning looking like she’d survived a sandstorm in the Sahara. But then it started: the pain. Torturous, constant, debilitating pain began screaming from my knees 24/7. And for the next 10 years, I limped along, icing my joints, overdosing on Aleve and turning a deaf ear to the double knee replacement surgery that was calling my name. Then one day, I caught a glimpse of myself walking towards a full-length mirror and my reflection literally stopped me in my tracks. I was so bowlegged and bent I looked like a gymnast caught in a perpetually bad dismount. I looked like a cross between my Jewish Grandmother and a Leprechaun or maybe Roy Rogers after a long trail ride. It was in that moment that I realized I had two choices: get the surgery or buy a green suit and get a gig selling Lucky Charms.

HEADLINES

• 🕳 Driver escapes massive road crater on Old Hickory Blvd. with 3 flat tires and a damaged truck. A Nashville driver says her pickup truck was heavily damaged after it hit a massive crater on Old Hickory Boulevard caused by a collapsed stormwater pipe. She escaped without injuries, but the incident left her with three flat tires and costly repairs as city crews worked to address the roadway failure. (NewsChannel 5)
• ⚖️ Federal judge lets redistricting law stand; separate immigration law challenge continues. A federal judge denied the ACLU's request for a temporary restraining order, allowing Tennessee's newly enacted congressional map to remain in place while the lawsuit challenging the redistricting process moves forward. Separately, civil rights organizations renewed their legal challenge to a Tennessee law that makes illegal immigration a state crime, arguing the measure is unconstitutional because immigration enforcement is primarily a federal responsibility. (Lookout & Lookout)
• 🎓 Tennessee Higher Education Commission approves pathway for three-year degree: The Tennessee Higher Education Commission approved a policy allowing the state's public universities to create three-year bachelor's degree programs. Schools can now submit proposals for 90-credit-hour degrees designed to lower costs, reduce student debt, and get graduates into the workforce faster while meeting accreditation requirements. (Mainstreet)

DEVELOPMENT

• Development company pays $14M for Wedgewood-Houston properties (Post)
• Nashville Zoo rejects DC Blox data center MOU (Post)
• Tony Giarratana jump-starts Elliston Place projects after years of delay (NBJ)

✹ METRO COUNCIL WATCH

New Council Watch Features We've added additional features to Council Watch. In addition to who's funding your council member, you can now see how they vote and who they vote with most frequently. (Take a Look)

THINGS TO DO

View our calendar for the week 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.

TONIGHT

🎸 Scott Levi Jones & The Holy Cow @ The Basement, 7p, $12.85, Info

🎸 Dolly Parton's Threads: My Songs in Symphony @ Schermerhorn Symphony Center, 6p, $69+, Info

🎸 Styrofoam Winos @ The Blue Room, 7p, $19, Info

🪕 Turnpike Troubadours @ Ascend Amphitheater, 7p, $51+, Info

🎸 Blackberry Smoke @ Ryman Auditorium, 8p, $47+, Info
+ Southern rock

🎸 Country Club Day ft. The Cowpokes @ Acme Feed & Seed, 12:30p, Free, Info

🎸 Kelley's Heroes @ Robert's Western World, 6:30p, Free, Info

SATURDAY

🎸 Blackberry Smoke @ Ryman Auditorium, 8p, $37+ , Info
+ Southern rock

🎸 Auntie Aircraft @ The Underdog, 7p, $10, Info
+ garage rock revival

🪕 The Acoustic Social Club with Tina Adair & Kim Fox @ Station Inn, 9p, $25, Info

🎸 Kelley's Heroes @ Robert's Western World, 6:30p, Free, Info

SUNDAY

🪕 Community Square Dance ft. Farmer & Adele @ Skinny Dennis, 2p, No Cover, Info
+ family-friendly square dance with live Western swing by Farmer & Adele, the last Sunday of every month

🎸 Webb Wilder + Erik Vincent Huey @ 3rd and Lindsley, 7p, $18.44, Info

🪕 Bluegrass Jam @ Station Inn, 7p, Free, Info
+ a night for musicians and singers from all over the world to gather and enjoy making music together

🪕 Sundays Between with Easy Green @ Tennessee Brew Works, 1p, Info
+ a fusion of two beloved musical genres – Bluegrass and the iconic sounds of the Grateful Dead!

📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.

Today's newsletter is brought to you by Davis Hunt, Megan Podsiedlik, and Camelia Brennan.