The Murfreesboro City Council approved its fiscal year 2019–20 budget in June, which calls for a Murfreesboro property tax increase of approximately 36 percent, with the tax rate climbing to $1.2894 per $100 of assessed value, up from a previous rate of $0.9494.

City officials say they expect this rate increase to generate an additional $17.8 million in revenue for the city next year, and will go to cover the coming year’s $186.2 million budget.

“This is an outrageous increase, they need to cut spending and quit with all the pet projects,” area resident LuAnn Tibbetts said.

Numerous other Murfreesboro residents expressed concerns about the city’s effective management of the millions of dollars it receives and spends each year, particularly the idea of spending limited dollars on “wants instead of needs,” as Murfreesboro resident and a former city council candidate Shawn Wright put it, saying the council’s past actions have now resulted in an “astronomical property tax increase.”

Wright suggests that the city should have waited on projects such as a tennis facility, multi-million dollar soccer complex, mountain bike trails, an airport expansion and others if it means such a significant tax hike on the backs of the current property owners.

“This plan is not acceptable,” he said. Some city officials and administrators say they aim to “run the city like a business,” but Wright says that if that were true, mandatory cuts would have been made long ago.

Property owners point to the construction of the recent Murfreesboro Police Department headquarters—originally budgeted as a $32 million project and eventually totaling $55 million—as horribly irresponsible local government oversight of taxpayer money.

“How about explaining that, going $23 million over budget?” Giuseppe Doliana asks.

Dr. Bill Ford, former MTSU finance professor and former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, said that this large of a property tax increase is “unheard of.”

“It shocks me,” he said.

This increase, along with the associated increased Murfreesboro trash pick-up fee, will mean an additional $230 expense to the average Murfreesboro homeowner each year (varying of course based upon the value of each individual property). Dr. Ford says that, while it may be inconvenient or frustrating, the higher-income families can absorb the increase. However, the poor and those on fixed incomes in the community could be significantly impacted by an annual cost of living increase of just a few hundred dollars.

“Please, stop referring to tax increases as ‘revenue enhancements’,” Ford also requested of the city council and Murfreesboro City Manager Craig Tindall.

Although this tax applies to those who own property in the Murfreesboro city limits, many say renters will certainly feel the effects as well, as some landlords and apartment complexes say they expect to pass along the increased expense to their tenants.

“I am a landlord who has not raised the rent for over five years,” Guy Laclair says. “I intend in raising the rent to at least market rate to cover this tax increase. Renters need to know to vote these people out of office!”

City officials say the “revenue enhancements” are necessary to fund infrastructure needs, maintain public safety, address the solid waste disposal situation, service debt, keep a strong community quality of life, pay for rising building and maintenance costs and to keep existing city departments operating.

“The city has provided services and infrastructure based on sales tax revenue growth and land sales. Sales taxes growth has, however, flattened and the city has sold much of its land,” according to City of Murfreesboro Public Information Director Michael Browning. “While continued growth in sales tax is expected, it is insufficient to address the increased demands of a growing population.”

With this growing population comes the need for new roads, and many repairs to existing ones, and as the recent property tax increase indicates, the idea that “the growth is going to pay for itself” doesn’t seem to be an effective and sustainable plan.

“An area of intensive focus is roadway construction and maintenance,” Browning said. Over $33 million in roadway projects are scheduled for FY20, and over the next five years, $441 million is dedicated to the construction and maintenance of roadways he reported.

To help spread out coming expenses, two major capital improvement projects on the horizon—Blackman Park and the Cherry Lane extension—have been delayed.

The approved 2019–20 budget will create an additional 14 new police positions, and will cover an approximate $2.3 million cost of city employee pay increases.

Council members and administrators point out that the cost of construction to build schools, roads and public safety facilities has increased in recent years, particularly in areas like Middle Tennessee, with high demand for materials and services.

Upcoming projects for Murfreesboro include the construction of a new Fire Station 11 breaking ground in fall 2019 to be occupied by summer 2020 at Blaze Drive and Fortress Boulevard, neighboring Blackman High School. This follows the recent opening of a new fire station on Medical Center Parkway.

The City of Murfreesboro also funds projects such as the Rover public transportation system, CityTV, parks including the large soccer complex and others.

The FY20 budget also provides $150,000 for targeted in-house economic development.

“These funds are anticipated to be used to hire consultants that will assist the marketing efforts for various initiatives, including corporate relocation and bringing high-paying white-collar jobs to the city,” Browning said. “The creation of an economic development division within the city  administration’s department has been an important first step to addressing development within the city.”

He said he expects this division to pursue projects such as the redevelopment of the former First Methodist Church/Franklin Synergy property in downtown Murfreesboro, the implementation of Historic Bottoms and North Highland Avenue land use studies to attract downtown redevelopment, new opportunities for tourism, tournaments and special events that produce positive economic impacts, the completion and promotion of the new Municipal Airport Terminal, solutions for local solid waste due to the disposal and other issues of importance to the community.

“The city will continue to work with the Rutherford County Chamber for corporate recruitment efforts,” Browning said. “The city council recognizes the need to attract higher-paying jobs to provide adequate property tax funding. Higher-paid employees generally purchase higher valued property with their income which in turn contributes to increased property tax revenue.”

“You know one thing that will guarantee that you will not bring in better jobs? Higher taxes,” Wright said. “Raising taxes as of now should not be on the table. The only thing that should be is major spending cuts.”

Richard Lasater says that the city government’s idea of “progress” isn’t sitting well with him and many of the other longtime area property owners.

“I am not getting anything from the government that I wasn’t getting 30 years ago but my taxes have gone up steadily,” Lasater said.

Don Marchant encourages the local elected officials to serve a government “by the people, for the people, and of the people.”

“People have made it very clear, we don’t want the tax increase, nor the unnecessary items budgeted,” according to Marchant.

Misty Moore said that Murfreesboro’s leaders are allowing a great community to become chaotic, overgrown and overcrowded.

“We have to determine not only what is in the short-term interest of this community, but also the long-term,” Murfreesboro City Councilman Bill Shacklett said. “We will do what we think is in the best interest of our citizens. That’s what you elected us to do.

“When we have to stand for reelection again, if you don’t like what we did, run against us or vote against us.”