Paving Wetlands for the Wealthy
Now that state lawmakers have decided to let certain commercial real-estate tycoons off the hook on taxes, they're desperately looking for an extra $15 million to plug the budget hole. One possible target? The state's land acquisition funds that are used to protect wilderness areas and wetlands.
It's a neat solution to the budget problem, isn't it? Lawmakers decide to keep giving a tax break to commercial real-estate businesses, which can then pave wetlands that would have been protected by the land acquisition funds if they hadn't been depleted to give the biz pigs the tax break.
Among the fabulously wealthy who benefit from the tax break are Nashville's May family, which started May Hosiery Mill in 1895 and now owns downtown properties, Belle Meade Plaza and Belle Meade Office Park. And that's not to mention lots of land at Bells Bend, which the family wants to pave for a Cool Springs-like shopping paradise.
