Nashville Chamber urges businesses to support 'crucial' November transit vote
The Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce is gearing up to support Mayor Freddie O'Connell's November transit referendum.
President and CEO Ralph Schulz told a crowd of businesspeople Wednesday that the November vote will be a "crucial moment in our regional history." He described a domino effect: Job creation fuels prosperity but relies on available talent, which is scarce. A region's livability is a main factor in attracting a workforce, and transit and connectivity is key to livability, he said.
"If (the referendum is) successful, it's going to deliver the resources to be able to begin to resolve those transportation issues and create the connectivity that you need for your workforce, for your customers and for yourselves as well," Schulz said at a Wednesday morning event for the organization's Partnership 2030 program.
The public-private collaboration aims to support economic prosperity in the Middle Tennessee region, and promoting transit solutions is one of the program's major initiatives. Wednesday's event featured a transit-centered speech from O'Connell, who also serves as a Partnership 2030 co-chair.
O'Connell announced in February his intent to put a vote for dedicated transit funding on the ballot, though precise details of a transit improvement program and what tax raises will be proposed to fund it won't be released until the end of March or early April. Basic tenants of the "Choose How You Move" proposal include improvements to Metro's traffic signals, sidewalks, safety measures and bus service (including some form of high-capacity corridor to the airport, a network of neighborhood transit centers and other upgrades).
Schulz implored Wednesday's attendees to support the referendum effort with both financial contributions and influence.
"That is a very important piece of the puzzle that we need to start working on, and if we don't do it now, it will be years again before we have another chance," he said.
More: Transit goals and who foots the bill: Nashville mayor talks referendum issues
Chamber was major supporter of 2018 transit referendum attempt
The Chamber's support for another referendum attempt was long anticipated.
The organization worked with former Mayor Megan Barry and state legislators to enact the IMPROVE Act in 2017, allowing municipalities and counties to put proposed tax increases to pay for a specified set of transit projects on local ballots.
The Chamber also played a major role in the shaping and marketing of Barry's 2018 "Let's Move Nashville" plan and referendum attempt, bankrolling studies, city visits and the Transit for Nashville campaign.
The 2018 referendum failed 64% to 36%. A postmortem review of "Let's Move Nashville" by New York-based foundation TransitCenter identified several factors that contributed to its downfall. Among them, the foundation's report stated the Chamber's role was "too dominant," not allowing space for other groups outside the business community, which left the campaign with ultimately detrimental "blind spots."
O'Connell's referendum announcement was met with support from organizations like Transit Alliance of Middle Tennessee, Network for Sustainable Solutions and ThinkTennessee.
Other groups are waiting to see the final plan, including Americans for Prosperity, an advocacy group that fought to kill the 2018 referendum.
"We'll have to wait and see what the details are," Americans for Prosperity Tennessee Director Tori Venable said in a February statement. "We think Mayor O'Connell is a smart leader who will hopefully make an earnest effort to learn from the mistakes his predecessor made that led us to unfortunately having to kill the last transit plan. ... We hope Mayor O'Connell will offer a more responsible plan that respects already overburdened Davidson County taxpayers."
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville Chamber urges businesses to support 'crucial' transit vote
