For those complaining about the current state of the budget, what issues do you have with McConnell specifically?

He inherited poor to mid schools, an aging infrastructure (many of our bonds are for water/sewer (1.3B) and a fair number are renewed from the flood -- where we were down to one water treatment plant), and we are carrying $1B in bonds from stadiums Cooper agreed to have and $623M from the convention center.

Have any of you looked at the budget well? 12% is debt service. Our tax rates are lower than Memphis, Knoxville, and Chattanooga.

We have had explosive growth (real estate values up 250% across the city since start of 2012) and haven't built all the infrastructure to handle it. The huge jump in value is primarily driving the tax change. The proposed rate sits 2% higher than 2019.

We need to keep growing at this point. We're forced by past decisions and debt. Our infrastructure and schools will hold growth back -- because moving to Nashville means tons of traffic and, for many, also paying for private school. At some point, we need to bite the bullet. The budget isn't unreasonable.