Dean's deal for Dolly joins list of corporate welfare arrangements

Last year Mayor Karl Dean announced a sweetheart giveaway for the LifePoint company: zero property taxes the first 4 years, markedly less than half of property taxes the 7 year after that, and only 75% of property taxes until year 15 of their lease. Last week Hizzoner announced another round of tax breaks for Dolly Parton's corporation and Gaylord Entertainment, that leaves me wondering how Nashville is going to fund our services with the tax dollars going out to big business:

When Dolly Parton builds her new water and snow park in Nashville, she's set to receive a pretty big thank-you gift in return ....

Friday, Nashville Mayor Karl Dean filed legislation [at the Metro Council] that would give Parton's company and Gaylord a 60 percent break on their property taxes for up to 12 years.

Nashville wants to offer that kind of deal because number released Friday show the park is expected to generate more than 1,900 direct and indirect jobs during construction, and 1,800 once the park is open. It's also expected to host 500,000 visitors a year.

It will generate $1.6 million in annual sales tax revenue for Nashville and the state.

And I'm sure that, once the park is finished, the State of Tennessee under the influence of entertainment industry lobbyists will break the promise of the millions coming back to Nashville by funneling those revenues back to entertainment industry interests on the hush-hush like they did with the Nashville Predators. However, right now the Mayor wants to sell this project for public support, so I'm sure he swears on all that is holy that Nashville is not going to lose any trickle-down sales tax revenue on this one.