Image Credit: Tabitha Kaylee Hawk / CC
The Tennessee Conservative [By Kelly M. Jackson] –
Several bills with the goal of reorganizing Metro Nashville government are advancing through the legislative process in the Tennessee General Assembly.
If approved and become law, the bills will do many things, such as shrink the Metro Nashville City Council by half, (from its current 40 members to 20) and control those who will populate the Nashville Airport Authority board along with the Metro Nashville Sports Authority – two entities whose membership is currently controlled by the city of Nashville’s Mayor, by statute.
If the bills become law, the state would for all intents and purposes be effectively in control of those mechanisms, moving forward.
House Bill 1176, separately, would change how the Nashville airport authority board is determined, giving state leaders the job of deciding 10 of the 11 board members with the House speaker and Senate speaker each selecting four members and the governor selecting two.
House Bill 1197, meanwhile, would allow each speaker to appoint three members and the governor to appoint four members of the 13 on the Metro Nashville Sports Authority. The mayor would appoint the other three.
Senate Bill 0648 would end a fund created to pay off debt on the Music City Center in Nashville, ending several taxes that paid into the fund toward $625 million in bonds taken out on the convention center, which opened in 2013.
Reasons for the changes were explained by Speaker Cameron Sexton (R- Crossville), who said “The airport is a regional airport now. It really is. The amount of people coming in from outside Nashville is more than the inside,” “I think the approach of making it a more broadly appointed board instead of just Davidson County may be the right way to go.”
Regarding the Nashville Metro Sports Authority, Speaker Sexton said that due to things such as the 500 million dollar investment the state made in Titan’s Stadium last year, he feels it only fitting that state appointed persons have a considerable presence on that body’s governing board.
And finally, regarding the end of Metro’s special tax authority, Speaker Sexton said that because the facility was taking in more than enough revenue to pay off the bonds that fund the facility that those bonds could be paid back in a more timely manner, and he feels “I think that’s a conversation that needs to happen,”
The bills are not without their critics, who charge that the bills might be violating the state constitution because they appear to be singling out Metro Nashville/ Davidson County.
However, the bill only amends current legislation that has been in place for decades, that has only ever applied to cities/counties that employ a metropolitan form of government, which Metro-Nashville/Davidson has been since 1963. And it is the only metropolitan form of government in the entire state, so an argument that it is being singled out is a hollow one, since no others exist.
Should the bills survive the legislative process, they will take immediate effect once being signed into law by Governor Bill Lee.
About the Author: Kelly Jackson is a recent escapee from corporate America, and a California refugee to Tennessee. Christ follower, Wife and Mom of three amazing teenagers. She has a BA in Comm from Point Loma Nazarene University, and has a background in law enforcement and human resources. Since the summer of 2020, she has spent any and all free time in the trenches with local grassroots orgs, including Mom’s for Liberty Williamson County and Tennessee Stands as a core member. Outspoken advocate for parents rights, medical freedom, and individual liberty.
