How Much of the left-wing "Peoples Budget" will make it into the Metro Budget?

by MEGAN PODSIEDLIK, Reposted from The Pamphleteer, June 13, 2024- Budget and Finance Committee Chair Delishia Porterfield seems to be an ally of the Nashville People’s Budget Coalition. Yesterday, Porterfield took to social media to share the substitute budget carve-outs negotiated in accordance with their demands.  

One of these changes would raise the mayor’s 3.5 percent COLA recommendation to 4 percent—a compromise down from the coalition’s request for a 5 percent increase.

Haggling over cost-of-living adjustments for Metro employees has always been a sticking point during budget season. Last year, Councilmember Courtney Johnston attempted to remedy this with a bill that would have made the adjustment automatic based on data consistent with the Consumer Price Index for urban areas. The council vehemently shot it down, and Johnston had this to say: “Civil service commission makes a recommendation, the administration does what they want to, and then we amend it however we want to and a lot of times it’s completely arbitrary. It’s not based [on] anything except for, apparently, wild emotion.”

Porterfield also highlighted that O’Connell’s budget has been substituted to include $1 million for the Varsity Spending Plan, $30 million for the Barnes Fund, $400,000 for an Arts Equity Study, and more than $1 million for indigent defense. She also mentioned she’d look into finding $130,000 for masks to be provided in public buildings in the future, per the coalition’s request.

These adjustments will go before the council next Tuesday, when they cast their final vote on this year’s budget. 

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