"When newly elected Nashville Mayor John Cooper announced that Nashville was in receivership during a speech at David Lipscomb University on Dec. 10, it created shockwaves.
Wait, what!
You can’t be serious!
Two days later, Metro Finance Director Kevin Crumbo announced that State Comptroller Justin Wilson had approved the city budget, thereby avoiding receivership.
How did one of the hottest cities in America get in this mess?
...Mayor Cooper talked to the Wall Street Journal about his mandate to pull the city’s economy back from the brink by (among other things) curbing financial incentives and relocation deals to corporations.
After the prior administration had awarded $167,000,000 in economic incentives in exchange for 13,000 new jobs and $1.2 billion in capital investments, the city could not balance the budget without selling assets like the Nashville Thermal Plant.
Which, IMHO, is like selling your living room furniture to pay your electric bill
...There are many reasons why the city ignored the realities of unsustainable growth.
For several years, revenues grew at 32% while expenses grew at 38%.
No one wanted to confront the reality of having to raise property taxes 16% to pay for the incentives that had been provided to companies like Amazon and Alliance Bernstein..."
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