Capital Plan, My Boy

The Daily · · 6 min read

Good afternoon, everyone. Today:

  1. Tonight at Metro Council: the body faces unusual wave of amendments to the mayor's $544.72M capital spending plan…
  2. Blackburn names McWhorter to lead transition and promises “DOGE”-style cuts…
  3. Judge extends block on immigration checks in the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program…

And much more!

Tennessee Election Results 2026

An overview of election results from every race on Tennessee’s November 3 ballot, including governor, U.S. Senate, all nine U.S. House seats, and all 116 state legislative seats, along with outcomes of the three constitutional amendments. (See all results)

Metro Council faces unusual wave of amendments to the mayor's $544.72M capital spending plan.

Lead story · By Megan Podsiedlik

The biggest item on tonight’s Metro Council agenda is the mayor’s $544.72 million capital spending plan (CSP), which is up for a vote after two deferrals.  A handful of council members submitted a total of eleven amendments, which is unusual for this process.

Councilmember Joy Styles has three amendments that shift money without changing the total: $6.26 million from school maintenance to Antioch Cluster Elementary, $750,000 for a traffic light on Bell Rd., and $4 million toward the Global Mall master plan. The Budget Committee didn’t smile upon Styles and already recommended against all three.

Councilmember Zulfat Suara submitted an amendment that would require space for mental-health evaluations in the new jail’s design. It’s worth noting that despite overcrowding issues at Nashville’s correctional facilities, members have questioned whether the jail is needed at all.

Councilmember Jeff Eslick filed seven amendments to rework and shave down the CSP. Eslick’s three largest cuts are $39 million from new-facility planning and land purchases, $8.5 million from bikeways, and $4 million from Vision Zero safety design.

The council will also hold a public hearing on a bill extending the East Bank Redevelopment Plan by five years so the city has time to consider a transit-oriented redevelopment district. It will also consider two 10-year tax deals for about 440 affordable apartments. In addition, there’s a homelessness package that includes $2.7 million to keep running the South Nashville transitional-housing motel, $500,000 for homeless supportive services, and the city’s application for federal HUD funding. Rounding it out are a final vote on a 55.6-acre Barnes Rd. rezoning, a final vote on a youth anti-extremism awareness campaign, a second vote on tougher door-to-door solicitation rules, and a nonbinding resolution asking the airport authority to work with the FAA on South Nashville flight-path noise.

Nothing on the agenda deals with Monday’s state Supreme Court ruling upholding the law that cuts the council from 40 to 20 members, or with redistricting. The mayor’s office says it is reviewing Metro's options.

You can follow along with the Pamphleteer’s user-friendly Council Watch Agenda starting at 6:30 p.m. tonight.

TENNESSEE MIDTERM ELECTION RESULTS

Tennessee stayed red last night, but Marsha Blackburn won the governor’s race by the slimmest margin in 130 years. Democrats also flipped six seats in the state House.

  • Governor:

    Blackburn (R) beats Green (D) by 2.5 points. Lee won by 32 in 2022.

  • Senate:

    Hagerty (R) is re-elected over Bradshaw (D), 55–43.

  • U.S. House:

    The 4th and 9th districts are still too close to call.

  • Legislature:

    Democrats flip six state House seats. The GOP keeps its supermajorities.

  • Amendments:

    All three pass. Davidson was the only county to vote no on two of them.

See every race, a county-by-county map and how the governor’s race stacks up against 2022 and 2018. (View all races)

HEADLINES

  • Blackburn names McWhorter to lead transition and promises “DOGE”-style cuts

    Gov.-elect Marsha Blackburn named Gov. Lee’s deputy governor, Stuart McWhorter, to lead her transition team. She called Tennessee a “conservative beacon” after a midterm that gave Democrats control of Congress across the rest of the country. She also promised a state-level round of DOGE-style cuts to wasteful or underused programs but named no agencies. She has yet to announce who she plans to appoint to her U.S. Senate seat.

    Tennessean

  • Judge extends block on immigration checks in the Ryan White HIV/AIDS program

    Chancellor I’Ashea Myles extended her order barring the Health Department from requiring proof of citizenship or immigration status in the Ryan White and HOPWA programs, at least until next week. She’ll then decide whether to issue a longer injunction. Nashville CARES argues the checks break federal rules and put public health at risk. The state’s lawyer said the department plans to verify patients’ status even if providers refuse, and that it is bringing the same checks to “many, many other programs.”

    Lookout

  • Tennessee made lethal injections more secretive as problems grew

    Christa Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, 19, a fellow Job Corps student whom Pike and two others lured to a remote part of the University of Tennessee campus, then tortured and killed. At her execution in September, she was still alive more than an hour after receiving what were meant to be lethal doses of pentobarbital, and witnesses could hear her struggling to breathe even after prison officials closed the curtains on the execution chamber. This was one of many times Tennessee has kept its lethal injection process hidden from media witnesses.

    Tennessean

DEVELOPMENT

  • Blackstone is providing a $310 million bridge loan for PGIM, Stiles and Hensler Development's Peabody Union on the riverfront, where the office space is fully leased to Starbucks for its Eastern headquarters opening in 2027.

    JLL

  • Millrose Properties, Lennar's land spinoff, paid about $42 million for a portfolio of parcels across Williamson, Davidson and Wilson counties.

    NBJ

  • Pinnacle is expanding into Dallas-Fort Worth, its first new market under CEO Kevin Blair, hiring former Origin Bank leaders Warrie Birdwell and Todd Cornelius to lead it.

    NBJ

  • Elevate North Nashville finished its first affordable housing, income-based rental duplexes on Scovel Street, less than a year after breaking ground.

    Tennessee Tribune

PAMPHLETEER TOOLS

Council WatchTells you who funds your councilmember and how they vote.Open Council WatchProperty Tax CalculatorTells you what that cost you.Open Property Tax Calculator

THINGS TO DO

Tonight Thu, Nov 5

ShowVenueTimePriceLink
Deer TickThe Basement East8p$68.25Info for Deer Tick
Live Jazz: Parker James, Paul Defiglia & Anson HohneVinyl Tap7pFreeInfo for Live Jazz: Parker James, Paul Defiglia & Anson Hohne
Dwight YoakamRyman Auditorium8p$151Info for Dwight Yoakam
Steve Huber & the FlatheadsStation Inn9p$20Info for Steve Huber & the Flatheads
Open MicFox and Locke6:30pFreeInfo for Open Mic
Kelley's HeroesRobert's Western World6:30pFreeInfo for Kelley's Heroes

Today's newsletter is brought to you by Davis Hunt, Megan Podsiedlik, and Camelia Brennan.

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