Joey Garrison

USA Today Network - Tennessee

In her first State of Metro address, Mayor Megan Barry outlined a robust agenda that seeks to capitalize on the city’s historic growth and tax collections to carry out major investments in new sidewalks, street paving and pay increases for employees.

She also looked ahead to one of Nashville’s most elusive challenges — mass transit and solving the area’s traffic congestion. She committed to finding a funding mechanism for a regional transit plan by next year and wants other Middle Tennessee counties and the state to help Nashville identify it.

“This plan must be big and bold, and it has to start now,” she said.

Laying out a vision buoyed by massive tax revenue increases due to the county's growth, Barry told a large crowd gathered Friday in warm weather at Ascend Amphitheater that the city has never been stronger. Festivities were kicked off by performances from three high school marching bands as well as two songs from rock legend Peter Frampton, who chose an acoustic set that didn’t include his trademark talkbox.

The mayor used a 34-minute speech — with perhaps the largest audience ever for the annual event watching — to propose a budget that she said seeks to give equity and sustainability to the city’s unprecedented growth.

“We must have growth with intention, growth with purpose, growth with design and direction,” said Barry, a political progressive and former councilwoman who was elected to office in September. “Our infrastructure has to catch up to our growth, and this budget moves us in the right direction.”

Barry’s administration has unveiled an operating budget for the 2016-17 fiscal year that is the first in Nashville’s history to exceed $2 billion. It’s a 6.1 percent increase over the current year but does not contain a tax increase. Next month, the mayor’s office intends to unveil a capital spending plan that is big on the basics, but the plan lacks a signature proposal.

Among the highlights of her agenda:

A 3.1 percent pay increase for Metro government employees as well as a plan to adjust pay grades to bring them up to the current market rate.

A jolt of $60 million to construct sidewalks and roads, which the mayor’s office says is the largest one-time expenditure ever in those areas in Metro.

Capital improvements involving school buildings, libraries and community centers. That includes getting started on the $40 million renovation of Hillsboro High School, a new library in Donelson and new Smith Springs Community Center in Southeast Nashville.

A previously announced plan to bolster the city's Barnes Fund for Affordable Housing with $10 million in additional dollars, which will bring its balance to $16 million — the highest on record. The housing fund offers financial incentives to developers willing to build affordable housing.

Expansion of greenways and plans to increase the number of libraries with hours on Fridays.

“This budget is about growing the city we want Nashville to be,” Barry said. “I’d like us to be creative and caring, warm and welcoming, diverse and inclusive, driven by community engagement. I’d like us to be a city where our conversations are bigger than our conflicts.”

It marks a $121 million increase over the final budget unveiled by former Mayor Karl Dean. Her administration unveiled the details to the Metro Council on Friday, making clear that the city’s seismic revenue growth afforded a lot of opportunities.

Metro’s intake of property tax revenue increased by $33 million over last year, and overall revenue growth jumped by $121 million — not coincidentally matching the size of the budget’s increase.

“It’s a good time to be the finance director in Nashville,” Metro Finance Director Talia Lomax-Odneal told the council, a nod to the few tough budgetary decisions that arose this year.

Vice Mayor David Briley called Barry’s plans “an incredibly ambitious agenda that a city like Nashville ought to have."

“I’ve sat through 17 of these now,” said Briley, a former councilman. “And it’s the first time I’ve ever heard numbers like that — increased tax revenue on that scale. It really goes to show how much growth and development we’re having, and it gives a lot of latitude to the mayor and this council to accomplish a really big agenda.”

Barry’s budget, which the council will be asked to approve later this spring, includes $33 million in additional funds for Metro schools. That’s $9.5 million short of the request made by the Metro school board. The school district has laid out a plan to boost pay for teachers, expand services to English-language learners and increase literacy programs for students.

Interim Schools Director Chris Henson said the district developed the schools budget with alternatives in case its request wasn’t fully funded. He said it’s too early to say whether the lower financial allocation would affect positions that had been budgeted. The school board has final say on what budget items would get eliminated.

Metro clears abandoned homeless camps at Fort Negley

Barry’s State of Metro came as her administration continues its efforts to slowly but steadily disband a homeless camp at Fort Negley, a city park near the Adventure Science Center south of downtown.

About 50 housing and homeless advocates critical of the city’s action gathered outside Ascend Amphitheater after Barry’s speech for a “People’s State of Metro” to protest the Fort Negley decision while calling on Barry to do more on the affordable housing front. The group called Barry’s $10 million pledge to the city’s housing fund mere “crumbs” compared to the challenge at hand.

“We're here to say this is a crisis,” said Lindsey Krinks, an organizer at Open Table Nashville. “We are at a tipping point. People are waking up, coming together, demanding change."

Barry spoke on Fort Negley during her speech, calling it an issue “near and dear to my heart.” She said her administration has taken a “compassionate, service-oriented approach” to find housing for the displaced people from Fort Negley.

In addition to the housing fund boost, Barry also discussed an effort to connect affordable housing developers to more than 60 vacant or underused Metro-owned properties. She also said the city plans to build 20 micro homes — or “tiny homes” — to take in homeless at the Green Street Church of Christ in Nashville.

Barry also referenced Monday’s quadruple shooting at the downtown Music City Central bus station, calling it a “jarring reminder" about the rise of youth violence in the area. She said her office doesn’t have all the answers yet, but that it took the right step by kicking off a series of youth violence summits that concluded with the release of a final report last month.

She announced the creation of Opportunity Now, a new program that will seek to connect young people in Nashville to jobs. It puts more flesh to a goal she’s discussed routinely to employ 10,000 people 24 years old or younger with jobs or internships by this time next year.

“We can’t do this alone,” she said. “It will take private, public and nonprofit sectors coming together to make this very ambitious goal a reality.”

On transportation, Barry touted already announced plans to improve intersections and optimize traffic signals and a partnership between the Metro Transit Authority and ride-sharing services Uber and Lyft.

She also looked ahead to bigger plans.

Barry, calling transit “not a blue-red, urban-suburban, Democrat-Republican problem,” vowed to work with the state and other counties to find a funding mechanism for transit.

“This is a marathon, not a sprint,” she said.

Barry’s State of Metro included prayers and blessings from religious leaders of Christian, Islam and Jewish faith. There was one blessing each in English, Spanish, Arabic and Hebrew. It was a clear nod toward the idea of inclusiveness, which Barry has sought beginning with her inauguration ceremony in September.

She wrapped up her remarks by saying that Nashville is uniquely positioned to benefit from conflicts over issues that may arise ahead.

“Conflict is inevitable and oftentimes necessary,” Barry said. “Without conflict, there is complacency. The question is, how do you respond to conflict, and where do you go from there?

“I believe we go from conflict to conversation. That’s who we are. That’s what makes us different.”

Reporter Josh Cross contributed to this report.

Reach Joey Garrison at 615-259-8236 and on Twitter @joeygarrison

Budget proposal

$2 billion total budget

No tax increases

$60 million for sidewalks, roads

3.1 percent pay hike for Metro employees