(The Center Square) – Americans For Prosperity-Tennessee organized a large effort to have a $9 billion transit plan defeated in 2018 in Nashville.

The group, however, is saying Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s new $3.1 billion plan including a Nov. 5 ballot referendum with an additional 0.5% sales tax is “more reasonable.”

“At $3 billion dollars, Mayor O’Connell’s new transit tax plan is a third of the initial cost of the 2018 plan,” AFP-TN State Director Tori Venable said. “It’s up to his office to make the case for a higher sales tax to fund more bus services, improved lights, and better city crosswalks. Ultimately, Nashville will decide if the transit services and improvements are worth the tax hike.

“We encourage Mayor O’Connell to continue looking to slash the budget and protect Nashville taxpayers from property tax hikes that are just down the pike.”

The city is hoping to receive $1.4 billion of federal funding toward transit projects over the next 15 years.

The project would include everything from sidewalks, signals and street work to corridor and transit improvements across the city.

If the transit proposal passes, the tax will begin Feb. 1, 2025.

“Six years ago, the Nashville taxpayers won by roundly rejecting the Transit Tax via referendum,” Venable said. “Thanks to the hard work of our volunteers and Stop The Train partners, we were able to reject the ill-conceived boondoggle that would have given Nashville the highest sales tax in the nation without solving our traffic woes.”

The project will add 86 linear miles of sidewalk along with 592 new or upgraded traffic signals.

The designated transit corridors will put dedicated transit-only lanes in strategic locations on 10 of the city’s most used roadways on areas such as Murfreesboro Pike, Gallatin Pike, Nolensville Pike, Dickerson Road, West End, Charlotte Pike and Bordeaux/Clarksville Pike.