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Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Nashville Council budget chair releases substitute budget proposal. Here's what's in it
Delishia Porterfield, at-large Metro Nashville Council Member and chair of the group's budget and finance committee, has filed her substitute budget proposal for the 2026 fiscal year. Porterfield announced the substitute budget in a June 12 news release. This is a key part of Nashville's budget process, which starts when the mayor releases a recommended budget in May. From there, council members gather community feedback during public hearings, hear directly from city departments with supplementary budget requests and come up with wish list asks of their own, all of which informs the alternative council proposal. 'My goal throughout this process has been to craft a fiscally responsible yet equitable budget that truly serves Nashville,' Porterfield said in the release. 'We've listened to our residents, community organizations and Metro departments to ensure that this budget reflects our city's immediate needs and long-term goals. I'm also proud that we were able to achieve these investments without cutting funding to Metro departments and agencies — ensuring that essential services and operations remain intact for the people of Nashville.' Council members will decide whether to stick with Mayor Freddie O'Connell's proposal, back Porterfield's substitute or go with another budget option entirely in less than a week. Before then, here's a look at how the two proposals compare. Broadly speaking, Porterfield's substitute and Mayor Freddie O'Connell's recommended budget both stick to the same overall price tag of around $3.8 billion. About a third of the total in both budget proposals, roughly $1.4 billion, goes toward Metro Nashville Public Schools. Since Porterfield's substitute arrives at the same total, that means it also keeps the same overall property tax rate as what O'Connell has proposed. Behind the scenes, some council members have an appetite to cut the 2.814 rate. The main difference between Porterfield's and O'Connell's proposals lies in the areas where the substitute proposes diverting funding. Perhaps the most notable example is listed in Porterfield's release as a key highlight of the substitute budget — an additional $8.2 million toward an across-the-board wage increase for city employees. O'Connell's budget already called for a 1% wage increase, which some community members have said doesn't go far enough. This additional allocation would bump that raise up to 2%. The release also highlights the substitute budget's priorities toward investing in youth safety, buoying support services like emergency food assistance and maternal health programs, and maintaining full support for city departments and agencies. Looking closer at those items, Porterfield's proposal sets aside $175,000 to expand food assistance programming through Metro Social Services, $250,000 to support maternal health and doula programming via the Metro Health Department's Strong Babies initiative and $100,000 to explore additional public-private housing partnerships. The substitute budget also includes support for developing a community-driven safety plan under the health department and funding flexibility, which would allow the Office of Youth Safety to access unused funds from the current fiscal year. That reflects the top priorities Nashvillians have raised during public hearings, Porterfield said in the release. 'Residents asked us to prioritize youth violence prevention through the Varsity Spending Plan, ensure fair compensation for Metro employees in line with Civil Service Commission recommendations and expand our tools to increase affordable housing,' Porterfield said in the release. Austin Hornbostel is the Metro reporter for The Tennessean. Have a question about local government you want an answer to? Reach him at ahornbostel@ Get Davidson County news delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville Council budget chair releases substitute budget proposal
Yahoo
10-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Programs for newborns, people with HIV at risk of federal cuts, Nashville mayor warns
Nashville public health programs could take a major hit, depending on whether yet another round of federal funding cuts proceeds. At his weekly media roundtable last week, Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell flagged a couple ways that $11 billion in potential cuts to public health funding through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services would impact Nashville. Specifically, O'Connell pointed to two local programs — Nashville Strong Babies, which provides services to moms ranging from family planning services to prenatal and postpartum education free of charge, and the Ryan White program, which provides community-based care for low-income people living with HIV in Davidson County and a dozen other Middle Tennessee counties. Here's what else O'Connell had to say about what those programs stand to lose. If the cuts are allowed to proceed, O'Connell warned that they'll lead to direct impacts at the Metro Health Department, which facilitates both programs. Services to 426 families through the Strong Babies program would be affected, and the health department could lose upwards of 20 jobs. That would affect more than 50% of the program's services, O'Connell said. 'When we're able to demonstrate the success of return on public investment, I'm just left wondering what sense it makes to cut funds to programs like that,' O'Connell said last week. 'Ultimately, the greatest potential impact would be that we return to an era when there are significant points of discrimination within prenatal and early childhood care that could be at risk.' O'Connell said that could mean a return to higher infant mortality rates, especially in communities of color, and more mothers dying during pregnancy. The Ryan White program, meanwhile, also is firmly in the crosshairs. O'Connell said the program could see $4 million in cuts. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued $4,658,066 in grants for the program to Nashville in the 2024 fiscal year — similar to Nashville's total awards from the two previous fiscal years — and another $857,721 since the start of 2025. Austin Hornbostel is the Metro reporter for The Tennessean. Have a question about local government you want an answer to? Reach him at ahornbostel@ This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Nashville programs for newborns, HIV at risk of federal cuts
