by Steve Cavendish, Nashville Scene, APR 18, 2023 - ...Allice Rolli
... about taxes. ...
Davidson County, Nashville, is the highest taxed city in the entire state, period, full stop, out of the pockets of people. We are paying the most taxes. So I think the challenge is that as the fiscal position corrected, we ought to have not continued increasing spending. We should have started to look at where we could have reduced spending to start to pay down some of our short-term paper and work on our debt issue. My feeling would be to say, “What do I need to pay back so that my kids and grandkids aren't continuing to be burdened with this debt?” And I think what happened instead is our city council and our current mayor said, “What else can I spend more on?” And I actually believe that'll bite us, you know, later as the interest rate environment continues. ...
What's an issue that we're not talking enough about right now?
Our crime. So currently, Nashville has a massive and persistent gap between crimes that are reported and cleared. And do not hear in that anything against the police. That's not what I'm saying. We're 200 officers short. And with that statement that we've got two-thirds of our crimes that are recorded are never cleared, what starts to happen is criminals become more emboldened because they know they're never going to be caught. And our victims become more silenced because they feel that what they are trying to do to advocate for a crime not happening again, and their shame in that crime happening to them. So I actually believe the thing that we have to talk about is the victim’s justice system, and finding resolution for our victims of crime. And right now, when we see that two-thirds of crimes that are reported are never cleared. That concerns me quite a bit.
So I do realize that the question is, “How are you going to solve that?” I think it's true, again, there's never a silver bullet, but it's twofold. One, with the 200 officers we are short, I think we would actually argue that when we look at the per capita staffing levels for a city like Nashville, we should actually have even more officers. So in theory, we are actually [a greater number of] officers short. And then two, I think it's a reset in our officers — right — and how we treat our officers and how we treat our police force. Again, I've never worn the uniform, but my husband did [in the military] for 20 years. And it is an honor in wearing a uniform to protect and serve your community. I think, unfortunately — and I think most frontline officers will tell you this — pay is part of it, but so is how we treat and how we value our public safety first responders and police officers. Yes, we need accountability in our police force. We're going to have to make this a place where officers want to come and I think that's going to take more pay, but it's also going to take a different attitude.
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