Nashville transit opponents file last-minute appeal to overturn referendum before tax hike

Opponents to Nashville’s transit referendum have filed an appeal in a bid to block the plan days before its half-cent-per-dollar tax hike is set to go into effect.

After losing their bid to overturn the election at a civil trial, former Metro Council member Emily Evans and her Committee to Stop an UnFair Tax filed an appeal of the decision on Jan. 15, Tennessee Court of Appeals records show. The $3.1 billion plan, approved in November by roughly two-thirds of Nashville’s voters, is primarily funded by a sales tax increase from 9.25% to 9.75% that will take effect Feb. 1.

The plan outlines major changes to the city’s bus systems, sidewalks and traffic signals over several years.

Evans’ lawsuit, filed after Thanksgiving, has been a thorn in the side of Mayor Freddie O’Connell, who has made improving transit a cornerstone of his mayoral campaign and time in office. After Chancellor Anne Martin sided with him after the one-day trial in the case earlier this month, O’Connell said he was “excited for all of us to be able to move past legal distractions and get to doing the work that people expect of us and asked us to do.”

Evans and her committee argue that some projects included in the transit improvement plan aren’t allowed under state statute and that voters were misled about some of the plan’s details ahead of the vote.

She said she was unsurprised after Martin’s ruling was handed down and was hopeful that a better outcome for her and the transit opposition would be found at the Court of Appeals, telling The Tennessean “we anticipate the appeals court will undertake a complete review of the city’s actions and non-actions.”

Metro Nashville has been ordered to respond to the Committee to Stop an UnFair Tax’s motion for an injunction by Jan. 27.

Evan Mealins is the justice reporter for The Tennessean. Contact him at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Transit opponents file last-minute referendum appeal ahead of tax hike