Share and Follow
In the aftermath of Middle Tennessee’s unprecedented ice storm, countless families, including the Wears of Green Hills, found themselves seeking refuge in hotels across Nashville. The Wear family, much like their neighbors, gathered their essentials and left their cold, powerless home behind.
“The cold was unbearable and only getting worse, so we decided to move to a hotel,” explained Eadie Wear.
With temperatures plummeting and their home rendered uninhabitable, the hotel became a temporary haven. However, this safety came with a cost. Each night, the Wear family watched their hotel expenses rise, compounded by local hotel occupancy taxes.
For those driven from their homes by storm-damaged trees and power outages, the additional taxes quickly accumulated.
In response, two Nashville lawmakers are now questioning whether residents displaced by such emergencies should be exempt from paying these hotel taxes.
A new bill advanced by State Rep. Jason Powell (D-Nashville) and State Sen. Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville) would give governments the option to waive or reimburse hotel occupancy taxes for residents whose homes are deemed unsafe or unlivable due to a natural disaster.
“We know these storms are becoming all too regular,” Powell said. “We want to make sure moving forward, people have the option — if their local governments choose to do this — to waive that 6% tax on the residents of Nashville.”
Powell said that hotel taxes were created to support tourism, not to burden families escaping freezing temperatures or structural damage. The proposed legislation would not automatically eliminate the tax. Instead, it would give cities and counties flexibility to decide whether to waive or reimburse it during declared emergencies.
For the Wears, the added cost was manageable — this time.
“It is a financial burden for so many people,” Wear said. “We were lucky we had the money, and it wasn’t a burden for us. It definitely could have been, especially if we were out of power for more than four days, which many of my friends were.”
The bill is scheduled to be heard on Feb. 18.