More Weird stuff at the Arts Commission. New Interim Director job offered while Director is still Sick from Racism and cannot Defend himself Because that would be Work.

by Rod Williams, May 6, 2024- The Metro Arts Commission should be a case study in the folly of wokeness and government ineptitude. You would think that after years of chaos, they would have to bend the curve and things would have to start to get better as some point, but they don't. Mayor Freddie O'Connell tried to turn the corner by appointing new high-profile commissioners in April 2023, including patron of the arts and wealthy Democrat donor Will Cheek, and former Davidson County Chancelor Carol McCoy and others. It hasn't helped. Will Cheek resigned after getting death threats and intimidations and before a resolution calling for his removal could be acting upon in the Metro Council. Carol McCoy is still there but recently had to defend herself against an unfounded ethics charge. Who would want to serve on the Commission in that environment? 

The most recent development at the Metro Arts Commission is that last week the Commission offered the position of interim director to Paulette Coleman, a former chair of the Arts Commission. Usually, an organization does not have and interim director while having a director but if Coleman accepts the job that will be the case.

The current director, Daniel Singh, is on sick leave. At last week's meeting he was also placed on administrative leave. He is obviously on his way out. Singh has been on sick leave since February 23rd. No, he doesn't have cancer or a heart condition or some other serious injury or illness. He is sick from racism. He says, “The racist behavior of the Metro Government has affected my health." 

The position of Executive Director pays $165,000 dollars a year and the Director has been on sick leave for 14 weeks. That is a lot of money. That is about $25,000 for not working.  Also, I wonder how one knows when they are no longer sick from racism. He has no plans to return to work or resign.  As reported in The Nashville Banner last week, the Commission is considering termination of Singh but is moving cautiously. At last week's meeting a motion to terminate Singh was made but failed.  “I am uncomfortable making a decision about someone’s livelihood without hearing from them,” said Commission Chair Leah Love.

There is a problem in hearing from Singh, however. To hear from him would be considered "work."  Metro legal says he cannot work while on sick leave. 

For more on chaos at the Arts Commission see the following: 

• Ethics Complaint filed against Carol McCoy by Arts Commission Employee, dismissed.
• When will Metro Arts 2023 grant recipients be paid? We don't know. 2024 Grant Reviews put on Hold.
• Metro Finance steps in to take over agency’s finances as embattled director Daniel Singh looks for new job out of state
• How Did Metro Arts Get Here?
• Things are still, still a mess at the Metro Arts Commission. Mismanagement could Imperil Metro Arts Budget. Race-based funding could be Unconstitutional.
• Metro Arts Commission, sicker by the day. Will Cheek to Resign amid Death Threats.
• Metro Arts Commision still Crazy after all These Years. Racism causes Director to take Sick Leave.
• Things are still a mess at the Metro Arts Commission. Metro Arts launches initiative to 'return land, money, and resources' to 'Indigenous, African, and Asian peoples'

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AFP Tennessee is Hiring

 

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You can be a Republican without having to say the election was stolen

A group of Republicans has united to defend the legitimacy of US elections and those who run them

 ATLANTA (AP), May 5, 2024 — It was Election Day last November, and one of Georgia’s top election officials saw that reports of a voting machine problem in an eastern Pennsylvania county were gaining traction online.

So Gabriel Sterling, a Republican who had defended the 2020 election in Georgia amid an onslaught of threats, posted a message to his nearly 71,000 followers on the social platform X explaining what had happened and saying that all votes would be counted correctly.

He faced immediate criticism from one commenter about why he was weighing in on another state’s election while other responses reiterated false claims about widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

“It’s still the right thing to do,” Sterling told a gathering the following day, stressing the importance of Republican officials speaking up to defend elections. “We have to be prepared to say over and over again -- other states are doing it different than us, but they are not cheating.”

Sterling, the chief operating officer for the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office, is part of an effort begun after the last presidential election that seeks to bring together Republican officials who are willing to defend the country’s election systems and the people who run them. ... Just 22% of Republicans expressed high confidence that votes will be counted accurately in November, according to an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll last year.  (read it all)

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GOP Nashville Summer Picnic

 

Purchase tickets.

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For Hillary and Melania

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Mayor O’Connell Proposes a no-tax-increase, ‘live within our means,’ $3.28 billion budget.

link, link, link

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A homeowner in Nashville pays a lower property tax bill than most other places in America.

by Rod Williams, May 3, 2024- Anytime a property tax increase is proposed, those supporting an increase will argue that Nashville has a low tax rate. Nashville's rate for the urban district, which is most of us living in Davidson County is $3.254. That is lower than the combined city-county rate in Knoxville which is 3.7096. It is considerably lower than Memphis at $6.09164, and also lower than many other places in Tennessee. I have not been convinced by this argument, however. I have argued that a comparable house in Nashville cost more than a comparable house in many other places and argued that the tax bill was what mattered, not the tax rate.

Well, I have discovered data that takes that into consideration. Compared to most urban areas in America, our property taxes are modest. 

First of all, one needs to understand what goes into determining the property tax bill. First, is the value of the property which is the appraisal. Many years ago, local appraisers had a lot of say into determining the appraised value and some kept them artificially low. Now, not so much. Local elected Property Assessors are supervised by the state and properties are appraised at or near market value and kept current with periotic reappraisals. The other factor is the assessment which is a percentage of the appraisal. Commercial, industrial and residential have different assessment rates. In Tennessee the assessment is 25% of the appraisal for residential property. The tax rate is rate adopted by the council and is applied to each $100 of assessment. Here is an example of how to calculate one's taxes:

To calculate the tax on your property, assume you have a house with an APPRAISED VALUE of $100,000. The ASSESSED VALUE is $25,000 (25% of $100,000), and the TAX RATE has been set by the Metro Council at $3.254 (Urban Services District) per hundred of assessed value. To figure the tax simply multiply the assessed value ($25,000) by the tax rate of $3.254. 

Urban Services District Tax Rate $3.254

$25,000 / 100 = 250 x $3.254 = $813.50

or  $25,000 x .03254 = $813.50) for a tax bill of $813.50

The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy examines 74 large U.S. cities and a rural municipality in each state and arrives at an effective tax rate, that is, the tax bill as a percent of a property’s market, for each municipality.  Of all of the municipalities included in the study, Nashville ranks as the 30th highest tax rate. By comparison Memphis has the twelfth highest tax bill of the 74 municipalities.   

Nashville's effective property taxes are among neither the highest nor the lowest in the nation. 

 

Sometimes a low tax rate may nevertheless result in a high tax bill and vice versa. 

There is still an issue of how much of our county is in the urban services district and how that figures into our property tax burden compared to other counties. Our General Services District is the equivalent to what in other counties would be "county," not within an incorporated area. Even that comparison would skews toward lower a lower tax bill for Davidson County. Davidson County's General Services District tax rate is $2.922; Shelby County's tax rate is 3.39000.

None of this is to say that we are under taxed. However, compared to most other urban areas of the nation we pay lower property taxes. 

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Americans for Prosperity Tennessee will not oppose Mayor O'Connell's proposed Transit Referendum

 

by Rod Williams, May 3, 2024- The director of the Tennessee chapter of the libertarian-leaning organization Americans for Prosperity posted on X yesterday that AFPTN was unlikely to oppose the upcoming transportation referendum. I am not displeased to see this.

I am still waiting to learn more about the proposal but what I see so far, I am also not opposed. I am not yet ready to be a cheerleader for the proposal, but of all of the transportation referendum ever before us, this is the only one I have not immediately opposed. Unlike some previous proposals, it does not include a massive tunnel through Tennessee granite. It does not take a major throughfare and put fixed rail down the center of the roadway, devouring traffic lanes. It is a modest proposal. It is practical. 

Our bus system needs improvements, we need more sidewalks, and our traffic signalization is in need of a major overhaul. While I wish these things could be done out of current revenue and generally think we are overtaxed, the amount of the sales tax increase is minuscule. On the other hand, this will make Nashville have one of the highest sales tax rates in the county. On the plus side however, people from outside of Davidson County will be paying the bulk of the tax. One of the reasons a dedicated tax is necessary, is that in order to acquire federal grants for transportation improvements, a dedicated tax supporting mass transit is required. 

I would still like to see a market-driven transportation system and have some thoughts on what I would like to see happen if I had my druthers. I will explain my vision of transportation in a future post. After years of hoping for a market-driven system to emerge, it is not happening in any meaningful way on a large scale anywhere, and we need transportation and improvements now. 

Back in the mid 80's as a freshman member of the Metro Council, I, along with a libertarian political activist by the name of Roger Bissell, led an effort to defeat a one cent gas tax referendum. I am proud of that effort in defeating the proposal. That effort gave us an opportunity to promote ideas of market solutions to public issues. Some of what we proposed, such as deregulation of taxi service and the allowing of ridesharing competition and other transportation alternative have happened. Now, it is hard to imagine how Nashville would function without Uber and Lyft. While I remain an advocate of market solutions to public issues, there is nothing in Mayor O'Connell's proposal that would preclude further emergence of market solutions. 

At this time, I am not opposed to the proposal before us. I will most likely vote in favor. 

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