Our Unnecessary Transit Referendum

Last week, the Pamphleteer sat down with leaders of the Committee Against an Unfair Tax, a new coalition united against the mayor’s proposed transit referendum. Though the group says they’re not anti-transit, they are less than enthusiastic about O’Connell’s plan, calling it unnecessary and unfair. Included among the ranks is Patsy Harvey, Tennessee attorney Dianne Neil, and former council member Emily Evans, whom you may remember from her 2015 effort to reduce the number of council members and extend term limits.

So, let’s get things started with a brief rundown of exactly why this PAC has come together, and what you all hope to accomplish before November.

Emily Evans: The first thing we hope to accomplish is some accountability. For the last 20 years or so, I have watched these proposals come forward—everything from the Convention Center to property tax increases— without a sufficient amount of scrutiny, or maybe more accurately, a decreasing amount of scrutiny…. Our sense of it is that we’re sleepwalking into a fairly regressive approach to funding a basic city service.

Are you all planning to do a grassroots type of campaign? Door knocking? What's the approach here?

Dianne Neal: I think it’s fair to call it that. To tie into what Emily said—the decreasing amount of scrutiny—I mean, we don't have an effective daily paper any longer, so the decreasing scrutiny from the media means that information just sort of is who gets there first. What we feel is essential for people…is for them to be fully informed, and that's what we would like to be a part of doing.

What are the things you're specifically looking at? The ballot language, the sales tax within the plan, the implementation of the funding mechanisms, the longevity of this? What are the things that you think aren't necessarily clear coming out of this very robust campaign we've seen from the administration and essentially all of Metro Council?

Evans: Let me start with the financing mechanism. The first thing is the sales tax. Taxes are a necessary evil. Here in Tennessee, we don't have an income tax to fund operations. We rely very heavily on a sales tax, but we try to use it with great discipline.

When you're considering a sales tax, I think you ought to be really straight with the public as to what exactly that means, and in the Choose How You Move pitch deck, the administration has said, “Well, 60 percent of the sales tax (and it's not clear which sales tax they're talking about in the document) is paid for by non-residents,” which, on its face, should be rejected. The biggest contributor to sales tax receipts in this state is the purchase of motor vehicles, and most people buy a motor vehicle from their local dealer…. Just using some basic logic, it's probably not an accurate number. So, why use it? Why obscure the burden, the real burden, from the public, and pretend somebody else is paying for that? The pitch deck also seems to rely heavily on some old information from 2018 about commuting patterns, which I think everybody knows have changed very dramatically since 2020. 

🏢 Dave Ramsey Loses Appeal On August 6th, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Dave Ramsey, the Franklin-based radio personality and finance guru, must remain engaged in an anti-discrimination lawsuit brought forward by a former employee. Brad Amos, who lost his job as a video editor in 2021, alleged that Ramsey fired him on account of his religious beliefs concerning COVID safety precautions. If the court rules in Amos’ favor, the case could have far-reaching Title VII implications for religious companies.

Ramsey, a staunch critic of masking and remote work, had ordered employees to return to the office, allegedly saying those who refused in-person meetings were displaying “weakness of spirit.” Ramsey argued that it was against God’s will to bow to safety precautions, which, said Amos, violated his belief in protecting others’ safety. When the suit was first filed, Ramsey Solutions responded to NBC: “Mr. Amos was fired during a meeting to discuss his poor performance with his leaders, where he insulted his most senior leader. He was not terminated for his religious beliefs or how he wanted to handle COVID.” TYLE HUMMEL

🚨 Violent Crime Statistics Though nationally, violent crime may be on the decline, Nashville’s still increased, ranking 11th out of 68 in reported rapes among major cities in a DOJ study. As Fox17 notes, there were more rapes this year (325) compared to this time last year (267).  Additionally, we rank tenth among reported aggravated assaults (3,229). Comparatively, Memphis slightly decreased in that period from 3,789 to 3,763 cases. Nashville’s reported murders dropped from 51 to 44, while robberies decreased from 660 to 598. 

Attorney General Merrick Garland praised the overall improvement, saying, “This data offers yet another indicator of a substantial reduction in violent crime in major cities across the country.” TYLER HUMMEL

💥 Dangers Of Distracted Driving Nashville’s traffic gets worse by the year, to the detriment of state employees. This weekend, the Tennessee Department of Transportation’s commissioner, Butch Eley, issued an urgent warning about an uptick in distracted driving. “There have been 73 instances in 2024 where TDOT workers and equipment have been struck by motorists, resulting in serious injuries to both our workers and the drivers of those vehicles,” reads Eley’s statement. “Motorists need to follow the law and put down their phones as well as move over and slow down when emergency and roadside workers are present.” TYLER HUMMEL

DEVELOPMENT

• Three bars set openings for Nashville neighborhoods (NBJ)
• Inside Hines' Wedgewood-Houston development (NBJ)
• Vote looms for east side hotel proposal (Post)
• Metro body OKs rezoning for Rock Harbor project proposal (Post)

✹ THIS WEEK IN STREAMING (August 13th)

The Bikeriders (Peacock) The ideal place to see the best movie of the summer was definitely a theater, but even the living room treatment can’t dilute the power of director Jeff Nichols’s great American epic about the development and descent of a 60s Midwest biker gang led by a top-form Tom Hardy. As we said upon its release, it’s a gorgeous tragedy about American autonomy and the unshakable trauma of Vietnam.

Studio 60 on The Sunset Strip (Premium VOD Rental) Those geeking out over the trailer release for Jason Reitman’s new SNL movie could do worse than fill the time between now and October with Aaron Sorkin’s short-lived NBC dramedy about the crew behind a fictionalized version of the show negotiating the cultural role of broadcast TV in the mid aughts. Sorkin’s soapboxy “walk and talks” have never been more attuned, especially with Matthew Perry leading the way in the performance he should be remembered by. 

The Beast (The Criterion Channel) French maverick Bertrand Bonello provides the ultimate treatise on unbridled Big Tech in this time-hopping story of a woman (Léa Seydoux) searching for fulfillment and her elusive soulmate (George Mackay) in a world of rogue AI that perceives human emotions as a threat. Epic, unwieldy, and endlessly rewarding.

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

🥁 LIVE: Sofia Goodman Jazz Jam @ Vinyl Tap, 7p, No Cover, Info

🎸 Honky Tonk Tuesday @ Eastside Bowl, 8p, $10, Info‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌
+ two-step lessons @ 7p, The Cowpokes @ 8p

🎺 Todd Day Wait @ The Underdog, 11:30p, Free, Info‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌

📰 Check out the full newsletter archive here.