Ben Cunningham, founder of the Nashville Tea Party, said people are fleeing Nashville in droves over compounded tax increases implemented in recent years and forthcoming increases expected under the current mayor.
Noting Nashville’s largest property tax increase in the city’s history of 34 percent in 2020, Cunningham said Mayor Freddie O’Connell is now planning another 20 percent or more increase to property taxes – all while the mayor campaigned on “building a Nashville for Nashvillians” to keep people from moving out of the city.
In addition to property tax hikes, Cunningham further pointed out how the tax increases are on top of the half-cent increase in the city’s sales tax to fund the “Choose How You Move” transit plan, which Davidson County voters approved in November.
Cunningham said the compounded tax increases are why people are leaving Nashville for nearby conservative counties, which he sees as a direct result of poor city leadership.
“Memphis and Nashville, the two blue areas in Tennessee, are experiencing the same thing which is net domestic out migration. People are moving out of Davidson County. People are moving out of Shelby County,” Cunningham said on Wednesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
“Ironically, [Mayor] Freddie’s main appeal when he ran for office was ‘we want you to stay.’ Now, how crazy Is it that the mayor of a major American city, whose major campaign platform was ‘please don’t leave our city,’’ begging people not to leave, has raised the transit tax and now he’s going to do a 20 percent plus property tax increase. He’s basically saying to people in Nashville, get the hell outta here, move out to Rutherford County, move out to Williamson and Sumner and all the surrounding counties. That’s exactly what people are doing,” Cunningham added.
Tune in now to hour 2 of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show – your AMERICA FIRST news talk
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Moving Day” by Ketut Subiyanto.
