TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Kate Prince on Sep 29, 2022

The Tennessee Supreme Court today declined to hear an appeal from the Davidson County Election Commission over Metro Nashville’s handling of an anti-tax referendum, the Tennessean reports. The denial ends a legal battle that began in 2020 when petition group 4 Good Government attempted to trigger a referendum vote to strike down the city’s 34% property tax increase and curb Metro’s power to increase property taxes. After that effort was struck down by a trial court, the group launched another referendum effort in 2021. It was also struck down. The commission took the case to the Tennessee Court of Appeals, which ruled the commission had acted illegally in its decision to hold the 2021 referendum. The commission voted to take the case to the Supreme Court in April. As of that time, the legal battle for both referendums had cost county taxpayers upwards of $955,000.