NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A new law moving through the Tennessee Statehouse aims to cap the amount local governments can raise property taxes without public input.
HB0565/SB0171 considers limiting municipal property tax increases to 2% without a referendum.
Carrie Bringle, owner of world-famous pitmaster Peg Leg Poker, told News 2 she supports the bill. Bringle was a vocal opponent of Nashville's 34% property tax hike in 2020.
“A few years ago, when property taxes were raised 34% in the middle of the pandemic, I predicted this: A lot of independent businesses would be forced out,” Bringle said. “And we've seen that happen. We've seen a lot of restaurants go away. A lot of these small, independent businesses have been forced into large-scale developments and tax rates. We have to move out of downtown because of this.”
Bringle said since he bought the building in The Gulch in 2012, his property taxes have increased dramatically based on the value of the property. But Mr Bringle explained that real estate value is only gained when it is sold.
“From the time we bought the building to now, our property taxes have increased about 800 percent,” Bringle said. “I didn't develop the property to be a hotel or a big resort or anything like that. We're a restaurant and we feed people, so the purpose of our property hasn't changed at all, but… , yet taxes skyrocketed.”
Rutherford County also saw a huge 16% increase in property taxes last year due to cash pressures and record economic growth.
“It's a double-edged sword. City government has to operate and citizens have to understand that the money has to come from somewhere, but what we see from the citizens of Tennessee and Nashville is that equity No one cares about paying a heavy burden, but they want to make a profit, and they want to be sure that that money is being spent in a fiscally responsible way. “We're doing it,” Bringle said.
Bringle worries that if taxes on downtown businesses continue to rise this quickly, more of Nashville's essential stores will be forced to close and more outside companies will move in.
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“I'm here for the long term. We're here to feed Nashvillians. We're not being pushed out of an area where we invested millions of dollars and created 50 jobs.” Even though we didn’t want to, we ended up being punished by the city for our economic growth and development,” he added.
A Beacon Center poll found that 67% of people support capping property taxes without a referendum. She said Tennessee is one of the few states that does not have limits on local property tax increases.
