Metro Nashville Sues After Election Commission Votes to Allow Tax Petition on Ballot - Articles

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Metro Nashville Sues After Election Commission Votes to Allow Tax Petition on Ballot

Posted by: Kate Prince on May 11, 2021

Metro Nashville is suing the Davidson County Election Commission over its decision last night to allow an anti-tax referendum to go before voters, the Tennessean reports. The commission voted 3-2 to place the measure on the ballot for a July 27 special election. The decision came after the commission received a legal opinion from its counsel and Vanderbilt University Professor Jim Blumstein saying it was the commission’s “duty” to get the measure on the ballot in 75 to 90 days. The petition aims to limit the city’s power over property tax rates, public property transfers, recall elections and more. It would roll back Davidson County’s property tax rate to the level it was before last year’s 34% increase. Metro’s lawsuit questions the validity of different versions of the circulated petition, which proposed different election dates. It also calls the petition language defective and argues it did not meet the threshold of required signatures to trigger a special election.