Knoxville council votes to send 1/2% local-option sales tax to voters, carves out groceries and adopts accountability resolution

Knoxville City Council voted to place a proposed one-half of one percent local-option sales tax on the Nov. 4 ballot and approved a companion ordinance exempting the retail sale of food and food ingredients.

The council followed public testimony from neighborhood and transportation advocates and several residents before approving the tax measure and a separate “grocery carve-out” that would exempt groceries from the increase if voters approve it. The council also approved a related resolution expressing the council’s expectation that revenue, should voters approve the measure, will be spent according to the five-year neighborhood investment plan and directing enhanced public reporting and transparency on how the funds are used.

Why it matters: Proponents said the tax would generate new local revenue to accelerate sidewalks, greenways, neighborhood traffic-calming projects and affordable-housing investments. Opponents and some council members said the council should take a clearer stand now on how the city will protect the funding from being repurposed in future budgets and asked for more detail about personnel cost pressures that are not…