The Fiscal Year 2023 budget is on the Nashville Metro Council agenda for their Tuesday, May 17 meeting.
BL2022-1248, a bill on first reading, is the ordinance setting the Fiscal Year 2023 budget.
Metro Council proposes to spend $2,966,198,600 for FY 2023, with $1,449,960,100 going to general funds and $1,109,002,500 to the school operating fund. $410,816,900 is also going to the debt service funds. The FY 2022 budget sat at around $2.6 billion.
The total revenue to support appropriations for the General Services District in this proposal is $2,788,008,500. The total revenue to support the Urban Services District appropriations is $182,252,000.
The full fiscal proposal can be viewed on the Metro Council website. As the budget ordinance is on first reading, several changes can and will likely be made.
According to Metro Government’s website, from April through June “The Council and the Budget and Finance Committee conduct public hearings as well as hearings with each individual department. The budget is approved on three readings and may be amended or substituted on the third reading. The Office of Management and Budget prepares substitute budget ordinances for the Budget and Finance Committee as required.”
“The Council passes the budget ordinances, and the Mayor signs the budget ordinances into law,” the website continues. “If the Council fails to pass a balanced budget by June 30, the Recommended Budget and tax rates take effect by default.”
Also on the agenda is the tax levy ordinance. BL2022-1249, sponsored by Councilmember Burkley Allen, is an “ordinance establishing the tax levy in the General Services District for the fiscal year 2022-2023, and declaring the amount required for the annual operating budget of the Urban Services District, pursuant to section 6.07 of the Metropolitan Charter.”
Section one of the proposed tax levy says:
BE IT ENACTED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT OF NASHVILLE AND DAVIDSON COUNTY:
Section 1. That the tax levy for the General Services District of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County for the fiscal year 2022-2023 on each $100.00 assessed value of all property, real, tangible personal, intangible personal and mixed, within the General Services District, shall be $2.920 prorated and distributed as follows:
1. General Fund                                                               $ 1.297                     per $100.00
2. School Fund                                                               $ 0.986                     per $100.00
3. Debt Service Fund                           $ 0.523                     per $100.00
4. School Debt Service Fund                                          $ 0.114                     per $100.00
Total Levy General Services District               $ 2.920                     per $100.00
Section two says, “Section 2. That $0.05 per $100.00 of the revenue of the General Services District general fund generated from this tax levy collected from the area of the Urban Services District will be deposited to the credit of the general fund of the Urban Services District.”
Section three says:
Section 3. Pursuant to Section 6.07 of the Charter, BE IT HEREBY DETERMINED AND DECLARED that the annual operating budget of the Urban Services District for the fiscal year 2022-2023 requires $139,705,500 by a property tax levy therein, and the Urban Council is hereby directed to levy a tax upon all property, real, tangible personal, intangible personal and mixed, within the Urban Services District of $0.332 per $100.00 of assessed valuation, prorated and distributed as follows:
1. General Fund                             $ 0.283                     Per $100.00
2. Debt Service Fund                         $ 0.049                     Per $100.00
Total Levy Urban Services Distri               $ 0.332                     Per $100.00
It is unclear if this year’s budget process will include more disruptions from leftist activists and groups like the Nashville People’s Budget Coalition looking to cut the law enforcement budget. 2020 was the height of the Defund the Police movement and radical leftist activists made their presence known. The Tennessee Star previously reported that following passage of the FY2022 budget during the June budget meeting, the Nashville People’s Budget Coalition shouted down council members. Metro Council was unable to continue its business on time.
The FY2023 fiscal proposal includes nearly $20 million additional dollars for the Metro Nashville Police Department, as well as an additional $500,000 for the Community Oversight Board.
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Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]. Follow Aaron on GETTR, Twitter, and Parler.
Photo “Burkley Allen” by Council Member At-Large Burkley Allen. Background Photo “Nashville Skyline” by Anonymous615. CC BY-SA 3.0.
