Knoxville voters on Tuesday rejected a ballot measure that would have increased the city’s sales tax rate by half a cent.
The referendum was rolled out earlier this year after Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon proposed that the city’s sales tax – with the exception of groceries – be raised in order to fund an array of community projects.
The Knoxville City Council voted in June to approve putting the Local Option Sales Tax referendum on Tuesday’s general election ballot.
The Sales Tax referendum was presented on Tuesday’s ballot as follows:
Shall the two and one-quarter percent (2.25%) local option sales tax rate currently levied throughout Knox County be increased to two and three-quarters percent (2.75%) in the City of Knoxville?
Kincannon, who dubbed her proposal the “Neighborhood Investment Plan,” projected that a half-cent increase to the city’s sales tax would generate $47 million in annual funds.
Those funds would have gone toward community projects such as sidewalks, parks, greenways, road paving, traffic calming, facilities and maintenance, and affordable housing.
On Tuesday, the referendum was defeated as 15,284 voters (61.55 percent) voted against the measure while 9,546 (38.45 percent) voted in favor of raising the tax rate.
A half-cent increase to the city’s local sales tax, which currently stands at 2.25 percent, would have raised the rate to 2.75 percent.
Coupled with the state’s base sales tax rate of 7 percent, Knoxville’s total sales tax rate under the mayor’s proposal would have been 9.75 percent.
Among those who advocated against the Sales Tax referendum was Tennessee U.S. Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN-02), who previously served as Knox County mayor.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
