An analysis by the Beacon Center found that Tennessee experienced the largest percentage increase in property taxes of any state over the past six years, more than 75%.
That should get every Tennessee homeowner's attention. But it should also force us to ask a simple question: Why?
I've made this argument before, and I'll make it again: Tennessee’s state government prioritizes big business over Tennessee families and small businesses.
Corporations get the subsidies and profits. Locals get the bill.
For years, state leaders have pursued growth at all costs: handing corporations tax credits, infrastructure assistance and other incentives, then celebrating the ribbon cuttings.
But growth isn't free. It requires roads, schools, water and sewer infrastructure and police, fire and other public services. And too often,
local communities are left to shoulder those costs because state law restricts the very tools they could use to make growth pay for itself.
Tennessee's own Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations acknowledges that new growth can require communities to build roads, sewer lines and schools while expanding police, fire and other public services. TACIR has also noted that Tennessee law leaves many communities without the authority to use alternative revenue tools, such as impact fees or development taxes, shifting an ever-increasing share of the cost of growth onto the homeowners and small businesses already here.
This is the bargain the state government has forced on Tennessee families: subsidize the growth, absorb the costs and settle for some of the worst outcomes in America.
The rankings tell the story
Tennessee is currently:
- No. 1 in property tax growth
- No. 50 in quality of life
- 2nd worst in the U.S. for small business survival
- No. 3 in farmland loss
- No. 44 in overall health
- No. 46 in health outcomes
- No. 42 in children's economic well-being
- No. 39 in children's health
- No. 37 in overall child well-being
- No. 51 in public-school spending per student
Tennessee is also one of just 16 states where infant mortality is significantly worse than the national rate.
Phantom wealth and real bills
These policies have very real consequences. A Tennessee family that bought a $250,000 home years ago may now own a house worth $500,000. On paper, they're wealthier. But they can't buy groceries or pay the electric bill with home equity.
Unless they sell, that appreciation doesn't put another dollar in their pocket. It's phantom wealth paired with very real bills: higher property taxes, insurance, utilities, maintenance, groceries and health care, squeezing working Tennesseans harder every day.
What’s needed is a policy shift
Economic growth is good. New businesses are good. New jobs are good. But the policies governing that growth have to be good, too.
Economic development should improve the lives of the people who already call Tennessee home, not price them out of the communities they helped build.
After years of putting corporate recruitment ahead of local taxpayers, Tennessee needs a different standard:
Growth should pay for growth, and Tennessee families should be at the center of our policy decisions.
If a development creates substantial new infrastructure costs, it should help shoulder them. If the state recruits major corporations, it should account for the downstream costs imposed on local governments. And state leaders should give communities reasonable tools to protect existing homeowners and small businesses from carrying an ever-growing share of the burden.
Tennessee's economic success shouldn't be measured by how many companies we recruit or how much wealth flows to the politically connected. It should be measured by whether the people who built Tennessee can still afford to live here, and whether their families actually share in its prosperity.
For too long, Tennessee has had its priorities backward.
The state gets the growth.
Politicians get ribbon cuttings.Big business gets the incentives and the profits.Local taxpayers get the bill.
Tennesseans deserve leaders who put families, neighborhoods and small businesses back at the center of our economic policy.
Because if we keep electing politicians who ask working Tennesseans to subsidize corporate profits while shifting the costs of growth back onto our communities, we shouldn't be surprised by the result:
Their profits grow. Their incentives grow. Our property tax bill grows with them.
Tennessee can do better.
Mike Cortese is the Metro Council member for District 4 in Nashville-Davidson County and an adjunct professor at Belmont University. He is also a candidate for Tennessee's 4th Congressional District.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Who pays for Tennessee's growth? Homeowners do | Opinion
