Mayor Freddie O’Connell Announces $6.9 Billion Transit Plan to Begin with Increase to Low-Income Fare Subsidy Program

Metro Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell announced Thursday that he made the initial request to allocate $59.3 million in funding from the sales tax increase imposed by the $6.9 billion Choose How You Move transit plan passed by voters last November, with the first item to be boosted by the sales tax determined to be the city’s Low-Income Fare Subsidy Program.

The mayor’s office announced “11 foundational projects” that it would ask the Metro Nashville Council to fund through the June, the remainder of the 2025 fiscal year, which O’Connell said would “pave the way for future improvements.”

He stated in his office’s press release, “I am looking forward to Nashvillians starting to see the benefits of investing in ourselves. We deserve more time with our friends and family and less time simply trying to get to them.”

The first item O’Connell said would be funded is an “increase the number of individuals qualifying for free or reduced fares on WeGo Public Transit,” which the mayor’s office said would be implemented sometime this fall.

WeGo Public Transit currently offers reduced fare for seniors and those with disabilities. The cost of riding a bus is reduced by 85 percent for those eligible for the program.

The nearly $60 million in funding will also provide for purchasing 12 new buses for route improvements, “a queue jump signal” to shave 2-4 minutes off the travel time for buses on the Murfreeboro Pike, and other improvements designed to speed up travel time.

It will also begin “planning to support upgrading 592 traffic signals to smart signals,” a controversial element of the transit program that opponents said violated the IMPROVE Act of 2017, which empowers Tennessee’s cities to raise sales taxes to improve a transit system.

One group organized to oppose the referendum, the Committee to Stop an UnFair Tax, argued that traffic signals and other elements of the transit plan, likely including the planned fiber optic installation designed to support the smart signals, are not part of a transit system. Last year, it sued to argue that their inclusion made the Choose How You Move referendum illegal.

A chancery court judge ruled against the citizen group in January, allowing the collection of taxes for the transit plan to move forward. However, the group has requested an expedited appeal for the lawsuit.

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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Freddie O’Connell” by Freddie O’Connell.