Nashville council votes to add transit referendum with two dollar amounts to May ballot

The countdown to Nashville’s historic transit vote now begins — officially.

Following action Tuesday by the Metro Council, Nashville voters will decide May 1 whether to raise four taxes, including the sales tax, to pay for a sweeping mass transit plan, anchored by light rail and a massive downtown tunnel.

The council voted overwhelmingly 34-2 to give final approval to add Mayor Megan Barry’s transit referendum to the local primary election ballot on May 1.

But bucking the administration, the council tweaked the referendum language to list both the transit proposal's present-day cost of $5.4 billion as well as the estimated amount of long-term revenue needed for the project, $8.95 billion. The mayor's office had lobbied for only the lower amount to go on the ballot.

It sets the stage for what will be one of the most momentous public referendums in Nashville history and continues a campaign that’s already turned heated in recent weeks between the two sides.

Until a week ago, the council’s vote Tuesday to simply add the measure to the ballot was seen as a certainty.

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The measure ended up passing by a wide margin despite new dynamics after Barry, the face of the transit referendum campaign, admitted last week to having an affair with the former head of her police security detail.

Although the mayor’s office continued to push for holding the referendum in May, some transit referendum supporters — in order to boost chances for passage by voters — had floated deferring the proposal to elections in either August or November. But no council members ended up pushing for a delay Tuesday.

►More: Will Nashville transit referendum list two dollar amounts on the ballot? Potential compromise emerges

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Councilman Jeremy Elrod, who carried the transit bill for the mayor, said the city needs to press ahead with its business.

"We've got a lot of things going on in the city, but the No. 1 issue that we need to deal with, and I think our constituents and voters expect us to deal with, is traffic, transportation, making sure people can get around town in an efficient manner," Elrod said. "Even with the announcement from last week, this city has to go forward with transit."

Mayor Megan Barry, in a statement from her Twitter account, applauded the council for "giving Davidson County voters the opportunity to make their voice heard this May on a bold, comprehensive transportation solution that will keep Nashville moving forward.

"As we continue to grow, so will our traffic problems if we don’t act now."

Two cost figures in referendum a 'compromise,' councilwoman says

The two no votes came from council members Robert Swope and Holly Huezo. Council members Angie Henderson and Dave Rosenberg abstained from voting.

In the end, the biggest question for council members wasn't approval of the ordinance, but rather how many dollar amounts to reference on the ballot.

After a lengthy debate, the council voted 21-16 to adopt an amendment pushed by the council’s five at-large members that will list two dollar figures.

It marks a a setback for the Barry administration, which had argued for weeks that $5.4 billion is the most accurate way to describe the project. The council's action could also help fuel the case of opponents, who have slammed the transit proposal as a "$9 billion boondoggle."

The $5.4 billion figure refers to the the current value of the project over the next 15 years to build light rail on five corridors and oversee improvements to the city’s buses during that time.

But critics of of Barry’s transit proposal, and even some supporters, have said the ballot should also list $8.95 billion, which takes into account all revenue that would be spent — including inflation, interest, debt payments, operations and maintenance.

Henderson called the amendment that passed Tuesday a "compromise" that adds clarity to the ballot language.

At-large Councilman Jim Shulman echoed those sentiments, saying the amendment creates better transparency by simply listing the dollars figures outlined in a 50-page document that outlines the mayor's plan.

"This is the largest project in Metro history," he said. "We need to be transparent with the voters. We need to tell people what they're voting for. This just puts that information in."

Not surprisingly, the Transit For Nashville Coalition applauded the council's action.

"Tonight was a victory to everyone in Nashville who is tired of sitting in traffic and missing time with their families," said Shelley Courington, the Tennessee associate state director of Advocacy for AARP and a member of the Transit For Nashville Coalition.

The NoTax4Tracks political action committee, a group led by Nashville automobile mogul Lee Beaman fighting the transit proposal, said they are pleased the voters will have the final say.

“We believe the Council did the right thing by letting voters decide on the full cost of the $9-billion light rail plan," the PAC's spokesman Jeff Eller said. "They will now have the opportunity to understand this plan will result in the highest sales tax in the country and will do nothing to help congestion or traffic on our streets.”

The transit program is headlined by a combination of 26 miles of new light rail, more robust bus service, and a 1.8-mile tunnel below downtown. The adopted amendment will mention the tunnel in the language.

The transit vote is the most challenging policy fight Barry has taken on since entering office in 2015. It’s been made more complicated following the admission of her affair. The pro-transit referendum campaign is now rethinking its strategy by relying less on the mayor and deploying multiple community members to regularly tout transit.

The referendum will have voters decide on increases to four taxes to pay for the project.

The sales tax hike would increase Nashville’s rate from 9.25 percent to 9.75 percent beginning July 2018 and to 10.25 percent in 2023. The new sales tax surcharge passed by the state last spring allowed Nashville to go above the state’s current cap of 9.75.

There would be quarter surcharge on the hotel-motel tax beginning next year. It would jump to three-eighths in 2023, pushing the rate to 6.375 percent overall – one of the highest in the nation.

A 20 percent surcharge would be added to the local car rental tax that would move the rate from 1 percent to 1.2 percent.

A 20 percent hike has been proposed for the city’s business and excise tax. For a business that currently pays $1,000 in taxes, the increase would mean an additional $200.

Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236, jgarrison@tennessean.com and on Twitter @joeygarrison.