It’s hard to make sense of any political landscape these days whether it is national, state, or local. This is my best shot at describing the framework I am using to interpret events as we approach the end of 2020.

The petition referendum ballot item would be bad for Nashville. You can read about that here and here.

This post will focus on what happened at the Election Commission meeting on September 25, 2020, and what we can expect to happen next.

Every time I renew my call for Chief Anderson to step down as the police chief, I think about the time he called the advocates who prepared the October 2016 Driving While Black report “morally disingenuous.”

With six days still until the Council’s June 2 public hearing on the budget, it’s time to talk through the options.

The agenda is out for next week’s Council meeting. In addition to the FY21 operating budget, there are several important finance matters on the agenda.

Over the weekend, I promised to post about some of the non-tax rate ideas that are out there. Here are several ideas I have heard discussed and my take on them:

This will be the third year in a row where I propose a substitute budget in place of the Mayor’s proposed budget.

On May 7, 2020, I hosted a Budget & Finance Committee about how to understand the Mayor’s proposed budget. We got pretty far in the weeds.

Tomorrow at 3:30 p.m., Mayor Cooper will lay out his proposed FY21 operating budget for Nashville. Last year, on the day before Mayor Briley’s budget was announced, I guessed the size of the $2.332 billion budget to within $3 million dollars. This year, because of all of the unknowns, I’ll be lucky to guess it to within $25 million dollars.

Many people are trying to understand what Mayor Cooper might have meant in the State of Metro address when he said to expect a “sharp” property tax rate increase.

As of March 29, 2020, Metro does not have all of its public health orders gathered in one place. Here they are.

This is a collection of my thoughts about coronavirus issues as of March 26, 2020.

Last year, before the Mayor announced his budget proposal, I estimated that it would be $2.335B. It ended up being $2.332B

I understand that Metro public health officials may soon update their guidance about gatherings in Nashville.

At the Council meeting on Thursday night, there were some questions from Council Member Delishia Porterfield and others about how and where the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee (CFMT) will spend tornado donations.

This morning, the Mayor’s office is holding a briefing session for media about the Mayor’s portion of the budget process, which is already underway.