The Metro Council will finalize the annual operating budget at our meeting on June 20, 2023. You can read my May 22 post about the Mayor’s proposed budget here. The substitute budget proposed by Budget and Finance Committee Chair Kevin Rhoten begins on page 487 of the Amendments Packet for our meeting tomorrow. Proposed amendments 1 through 23 begin at page 524 of the same amendments packet.

Here’s what I’m watching in the Mayor’s proposed FY2024 operating budget…

Nashville’s annual operating budget process has started. I spent some time today looking over the proposed budget. I’ll share links to what I’m looking at and some early observations.

I had to be at a court hearing for a law client this morning and missed most of the State of Metro address. I’ve watched the whole thing now.

The current Mayor and Metro Council are creating a budget problem for the future. I’ve mentioned the issue several times during Council Budget & Finance Committee meetings. So far, I’ve failed to get the administration or my colleagues to see the issue or act on it.

At the Council’s June 15, 2021, meeting, I will propose four amendments to the Capital Improvements Budget, or CIB. That’s different than the operating budget, which gets the most attention. The CIB is often called the “wish list” for large capital improvement projects.

I’ll update this information as we go through the FY22 operating budget process, but here is some early information.

I want to share some quick thoughts now that we’ve heard yesterday’s State of Metro address, but before we see the actual budget ordinance. Yesterday’s State of Metro was an Oprah-style political speech — there was something for everybody.

Mayor Cooper will deliver his State of Metro address on April 29 and he is required by the Charter to propose a budget by May 1. I’ll share with you what I’ll be looking for first in his budget.

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.

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