Tax-Averse Nashville Goes Where Few Other Cash-Poor Cities Dare

Nashville’s Music Row has gone quiet, its teeming hotels have emptied and its bustling restaurants, like the Capitol Grille, a fixture since 1910, are open for take-out only.

In a matter of weeks, the coronavirus pandemic has frozen the tourist-powered economy of one of the hottest cities in America. Nashville, Tennessee, finds itself staring into what Mayor John Cooper is calling its worst financial situation ever.

Cooper did what few mayors have dared. Last month, he proposed a 32% property-tax increase to help Nashville’s city-county government weather an estimated $470 million revenue loss over the next 16 months.

“This is ...