Nashville Bits and Pieces

[nashvylle]

Can metro simply not allow any appeals to happen next year?

[KJHburg]

forgot to mention this if any of you happen to visit the Queen City of Charlotte let me know and I will give you a tour that will blow your socks off.  Just let me know in advance about 6.5 hours drive from Nashville depending on your traffic getting out of town LOL and of course landslides and rocks falling at the NC TN state line on 40. 

[smeagolsfree]

Hope you enjoyed your visit KJHburg. If you ever get here on the first Saturday of the month, feel free to join us for a forum meet.

I may get to Charlotte next year to visit my brother in Mooresville again.

Thanks for all of the kind words and I really enjoyed all of the photos.

[KJHburg]

2 hours ago, smeagolsfree said:

Hope you enjoyed your visit KJHburg. If you ever get here on the first Saturday of the month, feel free to join us for a forum meet.

I may get to Charlotte next year to visit my brother in Mooresville again.

Thanks for all of the kind words and I really enjoyed all of the photos.

Up in Mooresville  you say? then you can pop on our new express toll lanes which Nashville needs to build LOL.  Just look for a bill in the mail. 

[LA_TN]

I asked Mayor Cooper about finances, taxes, etc and he said they will first work to stop some incentives and close loopholes given to businesses in the past. An example incentive: the water rate for businesses was reduced (years ago) to spur growth; now businesses in Brentwood pay a much higher rate than Nashville, but residents also pay a higher rate. But he is absolutely focused on capitalizing on the explosive growth to prevent a tax rate hike on residents 

[smeagolsfree]

1 hour ago, KJHburg said:

Up in Mooresville  you say? then you can pop on our new express toll lanes which Nashville needs to build LOL.  Just look for a bill in the mail. 

I saw those on the way into Charlotte last month. The lanes were empty at 8:30/9:00am whaem I was on my way in. I was sort of shocked. The other lanes were packed out.

I was able to do a pretty extensive drive, but didnt get out of my car as it was close to a 100 degrees that day. Hard to believe what a difference a month makes.

I did see about 18 tower cranes on my drive and I did take your advice and get down to the South Mall area. If Cool Springs were in Davidson County,  that would be the comparison. 

Many streets with sidewalks vs Nashville. A sad state of affairs here with sidewalks and mass transit, and now a string of sorry mayors to boot. The current one will I am afraid cut the nose off despite the face if what is said above is true. 

Charlotte has a distinct advantage over Nashville as far as terrain goes as the area in North Davidson County will be very expensive to develop where the land land in Charlotte is mostly flat compared to here. As far as the Interstates do here the State has no gonads as far as charging people to drive in express lanes. They passed a law several years back allowing toll roads but none have been proposed or built. 

Things are going to have to change but as long as we continue to have the same bunch in the state legislature stopping anything Nashville does then the city may be fighting a lost cause.

[DeemonBruhn]

I asked Mayor Cooper about finances, taxes, etc and he said they will first work to stop some incentives and close loopholes given to businesses in the past. An example incentive: the water rate for businesses was reduced (years ago) to spur growth; now businesses in Brentwood pay a much higher rate than Nashville, but residents also pay a higher rate. But he is absolutely focused on capitalizing on the explosive growth to prevent a tax rate hike on residents 

All I will say is this... it is a very dangerous precedent to retrade deals that have been made. It cashes in all the good faith reputation built over the years and sends a bad message that Nashville is no longer a place for investment.

Look beyond the headlines. There is political motivation by the current administration to make things look really really bad. They aren’t.

[ruraljuror]

5 hours ago, DeemonBruhn said:

 

All I will say is this... it is a very dangerous precedent to retrade deals that have been made. It cashes in all the good faith reputation built over the years and sends a bad message that Nashville is no longer a place for investment.

Look beyond the headlines. There is political motivation by the current administration to make things look really really bad. They aren’t.

 

 

Why does the current administration want things to look really bad when they aren't?  To shoehorn in drastic cuts and changes that otherwise wouldn't be popular unless they could be billed as a 'necessary' remedy?

[smeagolsfree]

Things are pretty bad. A 40 milion dollar shortfall. The water system is in shambles. There is no budget solution in site. The state is on the verge of taking over the cities finances. The Metro school system is horrible. There are almost 200 openings in Metro PD and about a hundred in Metro fire as there running a lot of 3 man trucks instead of 4 man trucks. The Metro teachers still didnt get much of a raise.

 

Shall I go on.

No sidewalks 

No workable mass transit with no plan in site and no way to pay for one if they did.

Traffic is a mess.

[DeemonBruhn]

 
Why does the current administration want things to look really bad when they aren't?  To shoehorn in drastic cuts and changes that otherwise wouldn't be popular unless they could be billed as a 'necessary' remedy?

Here is a quote from the Tennessean: "The scope of the problem is not at all beyond the capacity to handle," Justin Wilson, the state's 34th comptroller of the Treasury, told The Tennessean on Thursday afternoon.

Overplay the “crisis” that has a fairly simple series of corrective actions to eradicate. Make your opponents look like morons. Look yourself like the only smart person in the room and like a political hero.

Look at the actual budget. Debt service is the real issue here (outside of water) because we suspended to interest only payments during the recession due to a plummeting income stream. In addition we made some big capital improvements that have and will continue to pay off long term for the city.

Huge miscalculation both politically and economically on not changing the mill rate at last appraisal. A simple adjustment would have prevented this type of headline.

Worth noting that Standard and Poor still rates Metro Nashville as the highest possible bond rating.

[smeagolsfree]

I didnt even read the article till this morning. Pretty much a lot of the same issues I mentioned. 

I think I read that Metro school ranks in the bottom 5% of school systems in the country and again a lot of it is the states fault as they rank near the bottom as far as school funding goes on the part of state government. 

[titanhog]

4 hours ago, smeagolsfree said:

I didnt even read the article till this morning. Pretty much a lot of the same issues I mentioned. 

I think I read that Metro school ranks in the bottom 5% of school systems in the country and again a lot of it is the states fault as they rank near the bottom as far as school funding goes on the part of state government. 

But you can NOT overlook the damage done by the city government.  More the city's fault than the state's fault.

[PaulChinetti]

The city is booming or it’s a hell hole. It’s very confusing which it is. Based off all of these comments, haha. 

[rolly]

@PaulChinetti good observation; similar to San Francisco or Seattle, which are fantastic growing cities, but have some very crap hole issues going on there.   I think Nashville will not drop to the negative levels that those places have achieved in several categories. 

[Craiger]

On 11/17/2019 at 2:12 PM, PaulChinetti said:

The city is booming or it’s a hell hole. It’s very confusing which it is. Based off all of these comments, haha. 

Well with wealth inequality where it's at now, this is a good description for many large cities. You are living high or getting by. Not as much in between now. 

[titanhog]

1 hour ago, Craiger said:

Well with wealth inequality where it's at now, this is a good description for many large cities. You are living high or getting by. Not as much in between now. 

The "in-betweeners" have to move to the suburbs.

[satalac]

Why do we need express lanes? Those would get in the way of the express monorail!

[PaulChinetti]

Well there we have it, a number. Missed out on $37 million in property taxes. Still wouldn’t fill the hole apparently. But the hole would be much smaller. 

It’s looking like some tax increases are coming. 

[PaulChinetti]

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2019/11/19/exclusive-mayor-cooper-nixed-proposal-to-relocate.html

Noooooooooooooo!

I can’t read the story or it’s not loading properly. So I’m not sure of any details. 

[nashvylle]

46 minutes ago, PaulChinetti said:

https://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/news/2019/11/19/exclusive-mayor-cooper-nixed-proposal-to-relocate.html

Noooooooooooooo!

I can’t read the story or it’s not loading properly. So I’m not sure of any details. 

it was a bad deal for the city. 

Sources said Briley's potential deal, which was given the codename Project Green, would have seen Metro pay upfront relocation costs to PSC to help finance the move. The administration intended to recoup those costs through increased property taxes on the site, which PSC would have retained the right to develop

[PaulChinetti]

Why would you tac that last piece on there, yeesh. At this point it will just be PSC metals forever.

[DeemonBruhn]

Well there we have it, a number. Missed out on $37 million in property taxes. Still wouldn’t fill the hole apparently. But the hole would be much smaller. 

It’s looking like some tax increases are coming. 

So 1.5 percent of the budget. For all those jobs. All that infrastructure. All that notoriety. All the economic activity. Best ROI of all time.

A lot of bluster around the wrong things.

[PaulChinetti]

3 hours ago, DeemonBruhn said:

So 1.5 percent of the budget. For all those jobs. All that infrastructure. All that notoriety. All the economic activity. Best ROI of all time.

A lot of bluster around the wrong things.

 

I don't know, a lot of the businesses that got out of taxes where bars/restaurants on Broadway, they aren't providing tons of jobs or any infrastructure and are raking in money like crazy.

I'd definitely like to see a list of all the business that got their tax bill reduced.

[nashvylle]

I could be wrong, but I believe @PaulChinetti is referring to businesses that had successful appeals (and a lower tax bill), and @DeemonBruhn is referring to the businesses (Amazon, AllianceBernstein) that received tax incentives. 

Either way, is it legal for metro to not allow any tax appeals? 

[GregH]

I think even if Davidson County determined to deny all appeals, there is state-level recourse beyond that https://comptroller.tn.gov/boards/state-board-of-equalization/value-appeals.html 

 

Quote

Should a taxpayer disagree with a decision of a county board of equalization the taxpayer may appeal to the State Board of Equalization for a hearing and determination by an administrative law judge. While there is no specific timeframe for when a hearing will be scheduled before an administrative law judge, the taxpayer and county assessor will receive a notice approximately thirty (30) days in advance of any scheduled hearing. 

An Initial Decision and Order regarding a taxpayer's appeal will be issued by the administrative judge within ninety (90) days of the hearing.  A taxpayer has thirty (30) days from the date of the Initial Decision & Order to appeal to the Assessment Appeals Commission, otherwise the appeal becomes the final decision of the State Board of Equalization.