2024 Nashville People’s Budget Survey

We are excited to share the 2024 Nashville People’s Budget Survey. All community-oriented residents of Nashville are invited to complete this brief 5 minute survey. Responses will help develop a people’s budget platform that we will use to push for a more just and equitable city budget. Please share with your family, friends, and community!

take the 5-min survey today!

If you would like to print and share fliers with a QR code in your neighborhood, at a protest, at a community event, at your business, at your favorite coffee shop, on community bulletin boards, at your place of worship, or anywhere, you can download our flier (4-per-page) here.

Share via social media from the following links:

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Solidarity from Nashville to Palestine

The goal of the Nashville People’s Budget Coalition is to build a city in which all people enjoy the safety and abundance that all people deserve. Getting there requires radical transformations, including democratizing our city’s budgeting process and divesting public funds from cops and cages that prevent our collective safety and wellbeing. It also requires building participatory and economic democracy so that we can fully fund the public goods that truly make us safe: housing, healthcare, education, transit, non-police violence intervention and crisis response, and more.

But we can’t get there alone. That is why we stand in full solidarity with all people around the world struggling against the forces of state violence, captivity, and dispossession. This includes the people of Palestine who have endured 75 years of violent fascist settler colonial apartheid occupation at the hands of the state of Israel, and who are currently experiencing a genocidal escalation of that violence, funded in large part by the US. 

The deaths of both Israeli civilians and Palestinians are absolutely deserving of our grief. And yet, we have heard almost nothing from our local elected officials about the nearly 10,000 Palestinians killed in the last few weeks with the help of our tax dollars, let alone the decades of mass state and settler violence against Palestinians that led to this moment. We reject selective grieving and condemn our elected officials who continue to remain silent in the face of genocide. Furthermore, we stand firmly with Jewish people locally, across the US, and around the world who, as part of the global movement against antisemitism, are calling for an immediate end to Israel’s genocide of the people of Palestine. 

For the same reasons that we are in solidarity with all people opposing the war on Palestine, we also reject the fast approaching plans to construct militarized police training facilities in Nashville, one for the state and one for MNPD. Considering that law enforcement in Tennessee have trained with Israeli police forces, we have never been more clear that our struggles are intertwined. The liberation of people experiencing homelessness, exploitation, displacement, anti-Black violence, anti-queer violence, anti-trans violence, a mishandled pandemic, and mass criminalization in Tennessee is bound up with the liberation of people experiencing the genocidal violence and displacement of apartheid occupation in Palestine. 

We will not achieve liberation anywhere so long as colonization, apartheid, and borders promote the illusion of a good life for some at the expense of others. These forms of violence advance the global fascist movement that is on the rise in Israel, in Tennessee, and beyond, a movement that includes white supremacy, militarism, patriarchy, and other forms of oppression that aim to divide us when we are far more powerful together. 

We believe in a Palestine, a Tennessee, and a world without police occupation and violence, a world in which everyone has what they need to thrive and be free. We are committed to working with others to make this vision a reality around the world and here at home in our lifetime.

Ceasefire now.
End the occupation. 
Free Palestine. 
Stop Cop Cities.

In Solidarity,

Nashville People’s Budget Coalition Steering Committee

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For resources to better understand the apartheid occupation of Palestine that led to the present situation, see: https://decolonizepalestine.com/

To learn more on Instagram, follow:

@theimeu
@uscpr
@sbeih.jpg
@elmahabacenter
@nournashville
@freepalinashville
@tn4palestine
@nashvillejewsforjustice
@jewishvoiceforpeace

Ways to Take Action:

  • Attend the All Out for Palestine rally this Saturday, Nov 11 from 1-3 pm at Centennial Park
  • Sign the “Nashville Stands with Palestine” form
  • Follow @bdsnationalcommittee to learn about targeted boycotts against companies that support the occupation
  • Call your representatives to demand an immediate ceasefire and end to the occupation in Gaza
  • Attend a virtual phone bank, such as the weekly one put on by @centeringpalestine
  • Call your council member to demand they stand in solidarity with Palestine
  • Stay plugged in to our social media in the months ahead for ways to take action against cop cities planned for the Nashville area and to help execute our 2024 People’s Budget campaign

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MNPD wants a new “state of the art” cop training academy. Here’s why it would endanger us all.

On May 24, 2023, Metro Nashville Police Department Chief of Police John Drake told members of Metro Council that he will soon be making a “great request” to the city for what will likely be tens of millions of public dollars to fund the construction of a brand new “state of the art” police training facility. Here are his remarks:

The forthcoming proposal to build a new cop academy is outrageous, and ultimately a danger to us all. Here’s why.

To begin with, MNPD currently has more than 100 funded but unfilled positions. The department has been unable to fill these positions for years. As new recruits join the force, many others leave it. 

Meanwhile, as MNPD struggles to fill positions with public money they already have, fewer people are relying upon the police, as police “calls for service” continue to plummet year after year. Moreover, publicly available calls for service data show that the vast majority of MNPD’s work has minimal impact on real public safety, as a majority of all call “dispositions” are completely inconsequential. In addition to failing to provide genuine safety, the presence of MNPD violently exacerbates existing social and racial inequalities, making them a particular danger to Black, working class, and unhoused residents, and ultimately to everyone. If we expand the scope of “police training” by funding the construction of a “state of the art” training facility, we expand the likelihood that more of us will experience the violence that has been inherent to policing from its beginnings.

We have been told the lie again and again that more funding for more police is the only answer to the social problems we face in our communities. As a result, MNPD plans to open a new southeast precinct in late 2024, even though they do not have enough officers to staff it. The fruitless, dangerous expansion of police power in our city continues.

Despite their legacy of violence and their inherent incapacity to provide the safety we all deserve, as they struggle to keep and recruit officers, while racially disparate rates of police use of force skyrocket, and in the midst of ongoing revelations regarding the department’s unapologetic stance toward its sexually abusive culture, MNPD is preparing to demand more public money than ever before for a brand new police training facility that will not only fail to improve our lives, but endanger them.

Giving away tens of millions in public dollars for a new “state of the art” training academy endangers us all because it handcuffs us to a model of “public safety” that does not actually provide the safety we all deserve, the kind of safety that we can experience only if we DIVEST from the institutions that don’t keep us safe, and INVEST massively in the public goods and non-police violence prevention and crisis response that do. Simply put, funding a brand new “state of the art” cop academy will guarantee that Nashville remains a place of ever rising inequality, vulnerability, and violence for the foreseeable future, all while MNPD continues to proliferate the lie that our city will devolve into chaos without them.

We don’t have to buy into this myth. We don’t have to let ourselves be sacrificed in pursuit of the illusion of safety for all. With the people of Atlanta who are fighting the construction of a new police training academy in their city, and with others around the world, we believe that it is possible and necessary to build a world of safety and thriving beyond cops and cages. We deserve more safety than MNPD can ever give us. We deserve abundance, not crumbs. And so we say:

FUND OUR COMMUNITIES, NOT COP TRAINING ACADEMIES!

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The following is a transcript of Chief Drake’s key remarks regarding a new cop academy:

“As I mentioned a few moments ago, we are blessed in the Nashville Police Department to have extremely dedicated officers who care deeply for our city. The truth is, we need more.”

[…]

“We’re also looking in the future to build a police training academy. That’s gonna be a great request, but that will be for the next budget year. But if we’re gonna continue to grow our police department and have state of the art training, we’re gonna have to look to build a training academy in the future.”

[…]

Council Member Russ Pulley: “You said that we have a state of the art police department… Do we have state of the art training facilities to get our people through?”

Chief Drake: “That’s a great question and the answer is no, we don’t have a state of the art training facility. I visited NYPD and I got to see their campus. It looks like a university. Inside they had scenario rooms, they had an apartment complex, they had a grocery store, a bank, and other situations where they could conduct real life scenarios inside.”

[…]

Council Member Jennifer Gamble: “You mentioned that there’s a short-long-term plan to get a state of the art facility. Have you all done a cost analysis or a review of what can be done to the current facility to make some capital improvements at this time, and if so, what are those costs?”

Chief Drake: “So we have made some capital improvements. […] But I think it’s just too outdated to make any more improvements to it. It would have to be torn down. […] We haven’t had a cost analysis, but in my opinion I think it would have to be torn down, and so it’s just better to build a new one.”

* * *

The full MNPD budget hearing held on May 24, 2023 can be viewed here.

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2023 Candidate Survey

The Nashville People’s Budget Coalition recently distributed a survey to all candidates for Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Metro Council covering topics of Metro budgeting, governance, and public safety. The full results may be accessed here or below.

Most questions follow a yes/no or yes/no/maybe format. Some candidates took the opportunity to explain their answers in the final open-ended question.

Note: If a candidate’s responses do not appear, they did not complete the survey.

Early voting lasts until July 29. Election day is August 3. More info can be found here.

npbc-candidate-survey-2023Download

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Tell Metro Council to Support the Porterfield Amendment!

Take 1 minute to email council members by 5:00 p.m. tonight, June 20!

Nashville’s Metro Council will vote tonight, June 20, on the city’s 2024 operating budget. We are urging council members to support Council Member Delishia Porterfield’s amendment, which raises the cost of living adjustment (COLA) for working class Metro employees from 6% to 7% by reallocating funds from unfilled positions within five Metro departments, including MNPD. Because it draws from funds for positions that have been vacant for years, this amendment does not disrupt any city service. 

Tell council members to fund a living wage for real city workers, not imaginary ones! 

We invite all Nashville residents to use the form email generator shared by SEIU Local 205, the union representing non-police Metro employees. After you fill out and submit the form, the email will be sent to all Metro Council Members. Please note that the email as written is from the perspective of Metro employees. However, we invite all residents, whether they are Metro employees or not, to send an email, and to personalize the message as you see fit. 

If you do not use the SEIU form letter, you can email your council member and CC councilmembers@nashville.gov with your message. Be sure to include a subject line reading something such as “Vote yes on CM Porterfield’s amendment for additional 1% COLA”.

We strongly encourage you to contact YOUR council member directly by 5:00 p.m. tonight, Tuesday, June 20, by email, by phone, or both. (Look up your council district and council member here.) Council will vote on all amendments and the final budget tonight sometime after 6:30 p.m. Livestream of the meeting is available online on the Metro Nashville Network.

Why are we supporting this amendment?

While there are other budget amendments worthy of widespread support, including one from CM Welsch that would fund participatory budgeting using funds recommended for MNPD, CM Porterfield’s amendment stands the greatest chance of passing.

We believe radical change at every level is needed to shift away from collective investment in the illusion of public safety that the city currently funds, and toward the authentic public safety – rooted in fully funded public goods – that we all deserve. This is longhaul work that both reaches beyond the state’s pseudo-democratic processes and that also engages on its terms to transform conditions on the way to total social transformation. In other words, we are organizing to bring about political conditions in which CM Welsch’s amendments pass with flying colors. 

While the Porterfield amendment is only a small step, it is a step in the right direction: it will increase pay for the working class residents who help this city run and who are struggling to survive our city’s skyrocketing cost of living, and it sets the standard that departments including MNPD should not be paid millions for positions they have been unable to fill for years. Together with others, we will build on the momentum this proposal, and hopefully its passage, will set in motion.

Whatever the outcome, tonight’s council vote on the budget is not an ending but the beginning of another year of organizing and educating to build power by radically democratizing budgeting and governance in our city and by reimagining – and making real – public safety beyond cops and cages, public safety rooted in fully funded, community controlled public goods and crisis response. 

Stay tuned for next steps!

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Budget Demands & Call to Action!

Nashville’s Metro Council will vote on a new operating budget on June 20, 2023.

Our demands for the budget

1. No new funds for MNPD ($16 million proposed)

2. Dedicate that $16 million to a citywide Participatory Budgeting (PB) process for 2024

3. Give full control of the PB process to a department independent from the Mayor’s Office, such as the Metro Human Relations Commission

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Call to Action

(1) Endorse our demands as an individual and/or as an organization.

(2) Join us to testify at the annual Budget Hearing on June 6, at 6:30 pm, City Hall to tell Council how fulfilling these demands will improve your life! (Gather outside council chambers at 6:00 pm.) Register here to let us know you’re coming!

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Here are 5 reasons why we’re demanding no new funds for MNPD and $16 million for Participatory Budgeting

1. MNPD “calls for service” plummet year after year, yet MNPD funding continues to skyrocket. 

Nashvillians interact with police less than half as much as they did in 2016. Approximately 80% of all calls in 2022 were for non-criminal matters, while only 5% of all calls were for explicitly violent situations. Property offenses, which are direct manifestations of wealth inequality, accounted for 20% of all calls.

2. MNPD produces fewer tangible public safety outcomes every year, yet MNPD funding continues to skyrocket.

Police respond after a crime has already taken place. At least 75% of all calls for service in 2022 resulted in no tangible public safety outcome whatsoever. Only 2% of all calls for service resulted in citation or arrest.

3. MNPD currently has 137 funded and unfilled positions, totaling at least $13 million in excess funds.

Forty new officers are slated to join MNPD by August, but many positions will remain unfilled. The ongoing trend of officers resigning also promises to continue. Meanwhile, other departments providing crucial, life-sustaining goods and services are asked to make sacrifices year after year.

4. MNPD has received a total of $42 million in new funds over the last three years—more money than they can even use.

Even with an abundance of perpetually unfilled positions, plummeting calls for service, and diminishing returns on our “public safety” investment, MNPD receives millions in new funds each budget cycle, and millions more through supplemental allocations between budget cycles.

5. When well-executed, Participatory budgeting is a radically democratic way to reclaim public funds to make safe & thriving communities.

Metro’s current participatory budgeting (PB) process suffers from inadequate funding, inaccessibility, & burdensome control by the mayor. Control of the PB process must be transferred from the mayor to an independent, equity-focused department such as the Metro Human Relations Commission.

If you agree, (1) endorse our demands & (2) let us know you plan to testify at the budget hearing on June 6! 

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If you plan to testify on June 6, please be sure to:

(1) lift up our demands & narrate in personal detail how meeting these demands will positively impact your life & your community

(2) write out & practice your remarks in advance as you will have only 2 min to speak.

The safest communities are not the ones with the most police but the ones with abundant public goods and resources.

Black, Indigenous, working class, and unhoused Nashvillians have been left behind for far too long. It’s past time to build a Nashville for all of us!

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Participatory Budgeting | Radical Proposal Writing Party

We are hosting a virtual space on Wednesday, May 24, from 6:30-8:00 p.m. to develop and submit radical proposals for Nashville’s participatory budgeting (PB) process. Join us to learn more about the process and to help us further radicalize & democratize it by submitting proposals that benefit our communities! Bring a friend, bring a comrade, bring your organization! Register here.

What is participatory budgeting?

Participatory budgeting (PB) is a process in which community members democratically determine how to allocate public money. It originated in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1989 as a socialist experiment in participatory democracy, and has since spread around the world and across the US.

After years of pressure, Metro Nashville has allocated nearly $10 million in one-time funds to a citywide PB process. Community members are proposing projects for potential funding and will vote on the top projects in December. The deadline for submitting proposals online is June 1. 

Why are we doing this?

PB is an inherently radical & democratic process. Unfortunately, Metro’s PB process suffers from inadequate funding, inaccessibility, & burdensome control by the mayor’s office. We are intervening in order to help build momentum toward a PB process true to its radical roots.

NPBC is committed to building a Nashville not just for developers and a wealthy few, but for all of us. When carried out in truly democratic ways, PB is one step toward making that a reality. Our virtual event is not a formal collaboration with Metro Nashville government. 

Register for our radical proposal writing event today and share with your people!

Finally, stay tuned for more information coming later this week about our demands for the budget process and upcoming actions in support of them!

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General Interest Meetings!

The Nashville People’s Budget Coalition is now a member-based organization! We are holding interest meetings to share about our history, our present, and how you can contribute as a member to our shared future!

What does a member do? NPBC members will be equipped to build relationships and power in their neighborhood and council district by organizing neighbors around the challenges they face, all with the support of fellow members and leaders.

The goal is to build a safe and thriving Nashville for all, which requires an abundance of affordable housing, expansive transit, fully-funded education, living wages, violence prevention, non-police crisis response, health care, libraries, parks, and much more.

Endless funding for cops, courts, and cages inhibits our safety and wellbeing by looting funds that could otherwise resource our collective wellbeing through social goods, violence prevention, and effective crisis response. Instead, Nashville serves and protects a few at the expense of many. It doesn’t have to be this way.

How do we build a Nashville for all? By building neighborhood and district-based associations, assemblies, and other people-powered decision-making bodies that shift power to shape the budget and improve our material conditions.

Building a safer, more abundant Nashville for all starts with building relationships of solidarity in our own neighborhoods and with our own people. Join us on February 13 or 16 to learn more about how you can join in this critical community-building work! 

We are a multiracial collective striving to build multiracial people power for a world of safety and abundance beyond cops, courts, cages, and the racial capitalism they uphold. If you share our vision and purpose, join us!

Go here to register for our in-person (February 13) or virtual (February 16) meeting. Let’s build together!

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Final Book Club Meetings. Join Us!

Our first three meetings of the Nashville People’s Book Club were full of generative conversation as we connected the dots between No More Police: A Case for Abolition and what we’re seeing with regards to policing in Nashville. Our final three meetings will be:

January 12, 6:30-8:00 p.m. (chapters 4-5)

January 19, 6:30-8:00 p.m. (chapters 6-7)

January 26, 6:30-8:00 p.m. (chapters 8)

We hope you will join us as we continue to explore the reading in relation to policing in Nashville and strategize action steps! 

Attendance at all meetings is not required. Come as you are and as you are able! A firm commitment to abolition is not required in order to attend! Reading the book is encouraged but not required. 

If you have not yet registered and would like to attend, you can register here. No need to register again if you have already registered.

In addition to our book club, stay tuned for an upcoming announcement about general interest meetings we’ll be holding in February where we’ll share about the opportunity to become a member of our organization! We’re excited about continuing to build people power to transform the status quo in Nashville and can’t wait for you to join us!

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Nashville People’s Book Club!

Join us for the Nashville People’s Book Club!

We are reading the recently published book No More Police: A Case for Abolition by Mariame Kaba and Andrea Ritchie. 

We had a great first gathering of the Nashville People’s Book Club and are excited about our second virtual gathering, Thursday, November 17, 6:30-8:00 p.m.

At our first gathering, we discussed the Foreword and Introduction. On November 17, we will be discussing Chapters 1-2.

Our plan is to read and discuss two chapters at each meeting. Including November 17, we will meet four more times between now and early January. Attendance at all meetings is not required. Come as you are and as you are able!

If you have not yet registered and would like to attend, you can register here. No need to register again if you have already registered.

This book club is a great opportunity to sharpen our analysis and add new strategies and tactics to our toolbox for organizing to build a safer Nashville where everyone has what they need to thrive. It is also an opportunity to learn more about ways to join in our work, starting in your neighborhood! 

A firm commitment to abolition is not required in order to attend! Reading the book is encouraged but not required. 

Stay tuned for more updates and opportunities to join our work!

In solidarity,

Nashville People’s Budget Coalition

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