Nashville voters on Tuesday decisively approved Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s transportation improvement plan, a half-percent sales tax with revenues supporting a 15-year program of bus, sidewalk and traffic projects.
The win means O’Connell has avoided the failures of the 2018 transit proposal that was soundly rejected by voters while also ensuring that his tenure in office is not derailed just one year into the job. His plan, crafted in the months after he was elected last year, was significantly smaller in scope than the 2018 effort, which included miles of expensive light rail construction and a higher price tag. O’Connell and his allies have spent the campaign season visiting community groups and neighborhood meetings to present their alliterative pitch for sidewalks, signals, service and safety.
“After all these years we have secured dedicated funding for transportation and infrastructure,” O’Connell told a jubilant crowd. “There is so much good that we will be able to do for each other for the next 15 years. Tonight, I am extremely proud to be a Nashvillian with hundreds of thousands of Nashvillians who got this right.”
Campaign lead Jeff Morris echoed O’Connell as he thanked the campaign team and allied groups.
“This campaign is years in the making for this city,” he said. “I can’t be more grateful and thankful to every single person that came together to make this thing possible.”
Pro-transit volunteers camped out at polling places around the county on Tuesday.
“We’re voting ‘yes,’” one voter assured District 5 Metro Councilmember Sean Parker outside the Trinity Community Commons voting site, before her companion gave the referendum-supporting councilmember a high five. “You don’t have to tell us.”
District 1 Councilmember Joy Kimbrough, a vocal referendum opponent, was camped outside the Cathedral of Praise polling place.
“It wouldn’t be fair to the people I represent if I encouraged them to vote for this when we get the least, and we’re already an aggrieved community,” she told the Banner.
With a limited opposition — at least compared to 2018 — the low-key campaign was sufficient.
O’Connell has been discussing the need for an improved transit system since well before his election as mayor last year. A former leader of the Metro Transit Authority and advocacy group Walk Bike Nashville, O’Connell frequently repeats his story of saving money to buy his house by selling his car and relying instead on the bus and a bike. He joined most other mayoral candidates in calling for a dedicated revenue stream for transit and hinted at a possible referendum in his inaugural address 13 months ago.
“Today is the day we began building the transit system this city has needed for a long time,” he said. “We have big, bold plans and we might have to ask ourselves the question of whether we have the courage to pursue them.”
It soon became apparent that he would aim to ask Nashville voters to support transit on the November 2024 ballot, when some expected a higher presidential-year turnout to give a referendum a better chance of succeeding. By February, O’Connell had made it official, and two committees began meeting to shape the proposal he would bring to voters.
O’Connell unveiled the full scope of his ask in April. He wanted to use a half-cent sales tax surcharge to pay for increased sidewalk construction, an expansion of the city’s bus network, a traffic signal modernization effort expected to reduce congestion and the construction of new transit centers and park-and-ride facilities around the county. The price tag was significantly smaller than what was proposed six years ago. The mayor and other supporters also touted the estimate that more than $1 billion in federal funds could come Nashville’s way if a dedicated transit funding stream were in place.
Opposition was muted throughout the spring and summer, as groups on both the right and the left that opposed the 2018 proposal either offered their support or decided not to counter this effort.
O’Connell and referendum supporters tallied a win earlier this year when no other question was successful in getting on the ballot. One community group sought to ask voters whether the city should prioritize housing over racing at The Fairgrounds Nashville, but they were blocked in court and were unable to gather signatures in time. Several proposed charter amendments were shot down by the Metro Council, leaving transit as the lone question requiring voters’ attention.
An organized opposition effort did eventually emerge, though it was meagerly funded. Former Metro Councilmember Emily Evans was among the leaders of the opposition campaign. She trekked to community and political meetings to spread her message: voters shouldn’t trust Metro to spend new tax money wisely. She also sought to tie the transit campaign to a suite of unrelated Metro Council zoning proposals and decried “empty buses.” Kimbrough also emerged as a spokesperson for the opposition as she stood outside the Bordeaux Library early voting site for several days, telling voters to oppose the referendum.
“Any time I hear increased taxes, my radar goes off,” Kimbrough told the Banner outside the voting site in October. “I saw once again this area over here is kind of low on the totem pole. I was like, ‘no way.’”
One element of the program that remains unclear is the extent to which Metro can deploy dedicated bus lanes and other substantial transit infrastructure on state-controlled roads, including many of the busiest pikes in the city. Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner Butch Eley told the Banner in June that it was too early to discuss specifics. TDOT and state legislative approval would be necessary for dedicated lanes on state routes, like Murfreesboro Road, home to WeGo’s busiest bus route and the key corridor to the airport.
“I’m always concerned that we are creating the most efficient, optimum use of our roads,” Eley said. “What I don’t want to see is things that slow down what we’re currently doing. I think transit is an important part of the overall solution.”