Nashville Mayor Expected to Announce Property Tax Increase Upwards of 30 Percent: Report

Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell is expected to announce an increase to Davidson County property taxes between 20 and 30 percent during his State of Metro address next week, founder of the Nashville Tea Party Ben Cunningham told The Tennessee Star’s CEO and Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy in an exclusive interview.

On Thursday, May 1 at 10:00 a.m., O’Connell will deliver the 62nd State of Metro address at the Nashville Public Library where he will lay out his policy agenda and budget priorities for the 2026 fiscal year, which Cunningham said will reportedly include a remarkable increase to Davidson County property taxes between 20 and 30 percent.

“Emily Evans, former Metro Council member, says that she has a very reliable inside source that [the increase] is going to be closer to 30 percent,” Cunningham said on Friday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.

Nashville’s last property tax increase of 34 percent in 2020 was the largest in the city’s history.

Noting this, coupled with the latest half-cent increase to the city’s sales tax to fund the mayor’s “Choose How You Move” transit plan, Cunningham warned another property tax increase will work to “hollow out” Nashville.

“This will do to Nashville what the Democrats have done to every other major urban area – it will hollow it out so that the only people that can afford to live are the super rich while the super poor won’t afford to move out so they’re going to be burdened by this property tax increase,” Cunningham explained.

“We have to fight these Democrats and stop this doom loop from happening like it has in California, in Portland, in Chicago, in St. Louis and all of these Democrat-run areas. They just hollow out the urban areas and it is an awful syndrome that we’ve gotten into and we have to stop it here in Nashville. We can’t let this happen in the red state of Tennessee,” Cunningham added.

One hour before the mayor is scheduled to begin delivering his State of Metro address next week, a rally coordinated by Cunningham’s group, Americans for Prosperity-Tennessee, and GOP-Nashville will take place at the main entrance of the Nashville Public Library to push back on the expected property tax increase.

The “NO NEW TAXES” rally will begin at 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, May 1 – one hour before the mayor is scheduled to begin speaking to all Metro Council members, city officials, and other Davidson County residents who choose to attend.

Cunningham stressed that the mayor and Metro Council “won’t stop raising our taxes until we confront them.”

“The mayor right now is saying, ‘We are not going to cut the metro government budget, we’re going to force you to cut your family budgets by raising your property taxes.’ That’s his calculus, and that’s what’s going to happen unless we push back,” Cunningham added.

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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photos “City Hall” and “Mayor Freddie O’Connell” by Mayor Freddie O’Connell.