An independent accounting of the costs associated with the transportation referendum put forward by Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell on Thursday claims the true cost of the mayor’s goals will swell to $6.93 billion over the 15-year life of the project.
O’Connell originally announced the cost of building the transportation improvements in his referendum would amount to about $3.1 billion, with additional annual operating costs of about $111 million.
However, an independent audit by KraftCPAs determined, “Total revenue needed during construction will be $6.934 billion in future dollars.”
The auditors identified $3.26 billion that will be raised from the half-cent sales tax increase O’Connell proposed, an additional $2 billion raised from “bond proceeds from multiple revenue bonds issued from 2026 to 2039,” and $1.52 billion in federal and state funds.
According to the accountants, the remaining necessary funding will be raised from increased bus revenues made possible through through the transportation improvements.
They add that the previous cost estimate of $3.096 billion represents “the cost it would take to incur all 15 years’ worth of expenses” associated with O’Connell’s referendum at once.
While the real price of O’Connell’s referendum is more than twice the $3.1 billion proposed, the accountants nonetheless considered the mayor’s plans feasible.
They explained, “the proposed transit programs is financially feasible,” with “bonds, sales tax surcharges” and “other financing methods” providing “a reasonable basis” for O’Connell’s plan to come to fruition.
The audit and new cost estimate for O’Connell’s plan comes after Nashville’s Beacon Center Director of Policy and Research Ron Shultis called portions of the transportation referendum “downright inexcusably awful” in a recent analysis, ultimately concluding, “we have questions about how the most intensive bus infrastructure features of the plan will be implemented and severe concerns about Metro getting away from the basics of good government.”
Nashville Tea Party founder Ben Cunningham, who previously called the referendum a “greendoggle,” recently escalated his attacks by declaring it an “absolute ripoff of the taxpayer.”
“It is a complete and total insult and we see this so many times from Democratic policies. The very people that they supposedly are helping are the people that they hurt and that is the real crime here. The fact that the taxpayers are going to waste billions of dollars on this ought to be a factor, too,” said Cunningham.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Freddie O’Connell” by Freddie O’Connell, Mayor of Metropolitan Nashville & Davidson County.
