John Rich, best known for being one half of the country music act Big & Rich, is urging Tennessee leaders to do more when trying to protect Nashville's country music scene. Rich believes that the current property taxes are damaging Nashville and forcing establishments down a dark road.
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The country star shared his thoughts about the current situation in a
video posted on Facebook."When you think about Nashville, Tennessee, what's the first thing that comes to mind? Is it live country music? I bet it is," Rich began his video by saying. "I bet that's why you come here, because you want to hear the best of the best. You want to go down and hear band after band. You want to hear that great live country music in what? Music City USA, Nashville, Tennessee."
As the video continued, Rich discussed the increase in property taxes throughout Tennessee. The causation of those taxes is believed to be increased property assessments. As such, those new rates "make it virtually impossible for business owners around Nashville to stay in business."
"These are folks that have been there for 40 years on Broadway, and, you know, they can't pay the taxes," Rich explained. "Their option is, I was told, we're either going to go bankrupt or go to jail, one of the two, because we literally can't pay the taxes."
John Rich Shared His Concerns for the Future of Nashville
As the video continued, Rich made his concerns abundantly clear.
"We've got a Super Bowl coming to Nashville in a few years. Can you imagine the Super Bowl in Nashville, Tennessee, and you look down Broadway and only about 30 or 40% of those neon signs have electricity still running to them? That's what we're looking at," he said. "You're losing people, you're losing massive business because live country music no longer exists down there."
During the video, Rich also pointed out how important Nashville's country music scene is for the Tennessee economy. Therefore, he warned against letting the current property tax rises impact the overall economy by forcing closures.
"This is a 911 kind of situation for our town, but actually for the state, because those tax dollars find their way into the school system, first responders, all kinds of things that citizens of Tennessee need. A lot of that money gets generated right downtown in Nashville. And it doesn't matter if you're a Democrat or Republican, you know that's the math."
Rich is clearly fighting for something he's passionate about. He's also trying to ensure that people's livelihoods aren't destroyed by leadership's decision-making. However, right now, there's no way of telling whether his push for leadership to sit up and listen is going to yield any results.
Of course, we hope that it does.
