The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • A1

THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 2020 TENNESSEAN.COM PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK Volume 116 No. 170 Home delivery pricing inside Subscribe 800-342-8237 $2.50 Metro State pricing varies PRESENTED BYCatch the biggest night of high school sports online at 6 p.m. today at sportsawards.tennessean.com for the annual Tennessean Sports Awards presented by Farm Bureau Health Plans. Courage Award honors Upperman tornado survivors SPORTS, 3B Virus again on the rise: As the nation is reopening, several states are seeing a worrisome uptick in cases. 15A Strange atmosphere Columnist Gentry Estes says that in new winners might envy losers.

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CSLB 1047108 2020 Empire Today, LLC Must call or visit EmpireToday.com/Get350 to redeem offer. CARPET HARDWOOD LAMINATE VINYL TILE OFF TIME OFFE Making Beautiful New Floors Easy Schedule a FREE In-Home Estimate! 888-365-6790 TN-GCI0426045-02 Nashville council members adopted a property tax hike and approved a spending plan that increases funding for the police department and provides more dollars for local public schools including a contingency fund that could go toward teacher raises. Metro Council voted 32-8 to approve a budget by Budget Chairman and At- large Council member Bob Mendes after hours of debate Tuesday night and into early Wednesday morning. The budget, in on July 1, in- creases Davidson property tax rate by $1.066 per $100 of assessed value. This moves the rate from $3.155 to $4.221 per $100 of assessed value in the more urban areas.

For a home ap- praised at $250,000, that would mean an increase of about $666.25 per year. The new tax rate will remain the lowest among largest cities and counties. The spending plan, which council members adopted over the budget pro- posed by Mayor John Cooper, gives cost-of-living increases to city employ- ees, $7.6 million more funding to the school district and another $4.9 mil- lion to bring minimum wage up to $15 per hour for district employees. appreciate the community, the council and the administration all working so hard on the budget in these METRO COUNCIL BUDGET City approves tax hike, more funds for police Protesters demand that Metro government defund the police during a rally in Public Square Park outside the Metro Courthouse on Tuesday in Nashville. The new budget goes in a different direction.

Restoring a $2.6 million increase in funding for police is a blow to community advocates who called for reduced aid. PHOTOS BY ANDREW TENNESSEAN Plan passed after debate also gives more money for public schools Yihyun Jeong Nashville Tennessean USA TODAY NETWORK TENNESSEE See BUDGET, Page 14A Inside Nashville schools, teachers get unexpected win with council budget approval. 14A Anger, frustration and chaos erupt- ed on the Tennessee House Tues- day evening, prompting the arrest of activists as Democratic legislators watched in dismay their Republican peers decline to pass a resolution me- morializing a 17-year-old Black girl shot and killed in Nashville. have the a stunned Rep. Harold Love, D-Nashville, said sitting on a desk in a nearly empty House chamber afterward.

Love had presented a resolution to honor Ashanti Posey a teen prepar- ing to graduate from Hillsboro High School who was fatally shot in Nash- ville in April a memorial that failure leads to outrage and arrests Memorial bid for Black teen falls short in House Natalie Allison Nashville Tennessean USA TODAY NETWORK TENNESSEE See HOUSE, Page 13A GLADEVILLE Mike Tatoian set- tled into a chair in the administrative building at Nashville Superspeedway on Tuesday and breathed a sigh of relief. Tatoian, president and CEO of Do- ver International Speedway, had just surveying the Nashville Su- perspeedway, which will reopen with a NASCAR Cup Series race in 2021 after being closed for nearly a decade. To his surprise, he found no major structural damage to the facility, which sits on about 1,000 acres. Tatoian, who was joined by engi- neers from Dover and NASCAR, ex- pected to some repairs that Nashville track looks healthy in inspection NASCAR: Few repairs needed before 2021 race Mike Organ Nashville Tennessean USA TODAY NETWORK TENNESSEE See RACETRACK, Page 13A.