Mayor John Cooper is closing in on a long-sought tweak to Metro’s budget fine print. New legislation on the agenda for next week’s Metro Council meeting would require the city to hold large cash reserves on hand, a safeguard against the precarious financial position that earned the city a stern censure from the state in 2019.
An ordinance and corresponding resolution would fix a floor for the city’s reserves at 17 percent of the operating budget, ensuring that the city has two months of operating cash on hand. Last week, Comptroller Jason Mumpower sent a letter endorsing the legislation to Cooper, praising the city for pursuing a more conservative financial position after three years of steadily building a supply of operating cash.
The mayor launched his 2019 campaign promising prudent financial management to voters. It was at once an appeal to conservative voters, a callback to a Barry administration that ended with a guilty plea from the mayor for misusing taxpayer funds (Barry’s felony theft charges have since been expunged), and a swipe at David Briley, the incumbent and Cooper’s main rival. Cooper had earned a reputation as a contrarian councilmember at-large with a quick trigger for opposing any expenditures that came through the council. He leaned so hard into the fiscal watchdoggery that he started his first term by incorrectly stating that the city was in receivership.
Cooper, like then-Budget and Finance Chair Bob Mendes and then-Finance Director Kevin Crumbo, got put on watch in November 2019 by a visit from then-Comptroller Justin Wilson. Wilson rang the alarm on the city’s sparse cash reserves and generally criticized Metro’s poor financial shape. Immediately upon taking office, Cooper named Justin Wilson’s daughter-in-law Kristin Wilson chief of operations and scrutinized the city’s financial position. The visit, which Crumbo called a “well-intended call to action,” resulted in a corrective action plan from Metro in December 2019 and, contrary to Cooper campaign rhetoric, a tax increase in 2020.
Legislation on the council’s agenda for Dec. 20 would formalize three years of financial reform. If passed — likely, considering the mayor’s track record of ushering desired legislation through the body and years of work on the subject from Councilmember At-Large Bob Mendes — it would bring the city’s rainy-day fund in line with municipal financial management best practices. Functionally, it would restrict the council's ability to tap into cash reserves, often the body’s go-to instrument for making numbers work during budget season.
For now, it’s a victory lap for Cooper, a win on financial management as the city stares down hundreds of millions in debt for a new Titans Stadium, NASCAR track and a capital spending plan expected early next year.
“Just three years ago, the city was on shaky financial footing thanks to years of bad deals and spending down our cash reserves,” Cooper spokesperson TJ Ducklo tells the Scene. “This new fund balance reserve policy is just the latest example of Nashville’s financial turnaround, and we’re grateful for the state comptroller’s support as we move forward with a Metro government stronger than ever.”
