Referendum Language for Fairgrounds Racing Ban Gets Approved as Petition Tactics Face Scrutiny.

by Megan Podsiedlik, The Pamphleteer, Oct. 9, 2026- The Charter Revision Commission approved the ballot language for a referendum to ban racing at the Fairgrounds Nashville during a brief meeting yesterday. As of now, the measure can move forward if the Election Commission verifies that the petition in relation to the referendum has enough valid signatures. If all hurdles are cleared, the referendum would appear on next year’s ballot, giving Nashville voters the chance to decide the fate of racing at the historic Fairgrounds.

“There's not anything that can be said that's going to sway us one way or the other because what we have to do is basically just approve the ballot,” said Commission Chair Dewey Branstetter. The chair went on to explain that the commission’s role is simply "ministerial” before opening up public comment.

Jon Cooper, an attorney with Holland & Knight representing Decline to Sign, which opposes the proposed ban on racing at the fairgrounds, acknowledged that the referendum language clearly outlines the ban but questioned the validity of the petition process. 

“We have multiple examples of canvassers throughout the process misleading voters to get signatures by saying that Metro had already decided to tear down the racetrack and that this is going to get affordable housing in its place,” said Cooper. “I’ve submitted to Mr. Kyle, for the record, approximately one hour of video footage showing multiple instances of these falsehoods.”

John Spraggins, a local attorney and president of Care for Nashville, a group supporting the referendum, argued that the video should be stricken from the record. “That’s not really relevant to what this commission is considering today,” he said.

Councilmember Olivia Hill raised concerns about voter clarity after being approached four separate times to sign the petition.

“Each time I was approached [they] said, ‘Hey, would you like affordable housing in Nashville?’ and I said, ‘Sure!’” explained Hill. “And they're like, ‘Just sign this petition.’”

“I understand that your duty today is very ministerial in nature, but I do think it's one of the first steps during this entire process where something has been made crystal clear and truthful to the voters of Nashville,” said MNPS School Board member and former Metro Council member Zach Young, reiterating that the referendum would only end auto racing at the fairgrounds.

For funsies, Chair Branstetter asked legal counsel what would have happened if the commission had rejected the referendum language. Legal explained that the body would have been required to provide its exact reasoning. “And then we'd end up in Chancery Court on the other end,” said Branstetter, underscoring the justification for the body’s decision.

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Trump Tariffs Caused a 2.9 Percent Increase in the Price of Many Everyday Item and Also Raises the Prices of Domestically Produced Goods, Federal Reserve Study Finds

by Rod Williams, Oct. 8, 2026 - It amazes me that many people still believe the exporting country pays tariffs when goods are imported into the United States. They do not. No matter how often President Trump says or implies they do, they simply do not. The importer pays the tariff. The importer could be a wholesaler who then sells his imported goods to a retailer, or a large company that imports and retails. In any event, when the retailer sells goods to the consumer, he passes on the tariff. 

Now, the wholesaler or the retailer may "eat" some of the tariffs. That is, they may lower their profit margin, or find cost savings elsewhere to avoid passing on the full cost of the tariffs. Also, the producer of the product or the exporter may lower the price at which they sell their product to the importer. So while a 100% of the tariff may not be added to the retail price, most of it is.  A recent study published by the New York Federal Reserve found that "a 10 percent increase in the duty rate pushes up import prices by 9.2 percent" (link page 10). So, 92% of the tariff is passed on to the consumer.

One thing people often don't think about or realize is that even if you buy goods made in America, increased tariffs raise the cost of those goods too. The study explains:

Tariffs also affect the prices of goods made in the U.S. This happens in two ways. First, many U.S. producers rely on imported parts and materials, so tariffs raise their cost of production. For example, a tariff on steel makes it more expensive to build a car in the U.S. We refer to this effect as the marginal cost channel. Second, when tariffs make imported goods more expensive, U.S. producers of competing goods face less pressure to keep their own prices down. We refer to this effect as the strategic complementarity channel. We find evidence that U.S. producers increased their prices at the factory gate because of both channels, and the marginal cost effect is the larger of the two.

This same study also found that President Donald Trump's tariff policies were responsible for keeping prices elevated across 67 categories of consumer goods. The research estimated that these items cost 2.9 percentage points more as of February 2026 due to the tariffs. 

The Consumer Price Index measures price changes over time. While there is a definition of inflation that is broader than prices increasing over time, for people who are not academic economists, it is fair to say the CPI measures inflation. There are other indexes that try to do the same, such as the Producer Price Index, but the most relied upon is the CPI. The CPI is produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS collects about 80,000 prices monthly from retail stores, service establishments, car dealers, doctors' offices, divorce lawyers, funeral homes, and almost every price that is part of a legal market transaction. I worked for the Consumer Price Index for several years and was a field officer collecting those prices. The prices are weighted to represent a typical urban market basket of goods. So, while you may purchase only one divorce and one funeral in your lifetime, you probably purchase milk and bread every week. The BLS has a bunch of statisticians and economists who figure out how to calculate the weights of the items in the basket. The U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) classifies all expenditure items into 8 major groups, which are further broken down into more than 200 detailed item categories. 

The recent Federal Reserve of New York study found that of the CPI's 200-plus categories of goods and services, the cost of 67 categories of goods was 2.9 percentage points higher as of February, thanks to Trump tariffs. It is a fact: tariffs are causing price increases. 

To read the full report, follow this link. 

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