The polls have closed and votes have been tallied in Knoxville’s 2025 general election. The biggest takeaway? Sales tax in the city limits will remain fixed at 9.25%.
It’s a blow to Mayor Indya Kincannon as her final term prepares to enter its third year. She proposed a 0.5% sales tax raise several months ago as a way for the city to raise additional money to keep up with growing infrastructure demands.
“This certainly wasn’t the outcome that we were hoping for,” Kincannon said, speaking to reporters in Market Square late Tuesday night. “I think it’s hard at any time to ask people to vote to increase their own taxes, even though we think it was a great opportunity.”
Kincannon told WUOT News in April that she had hoped to invest the extra $47 million in annual funds raised by the tax increase into affordable housing and other public infrastructure projects.
“What we would use that money for is for investments in quality of life [and] neighborhood improvements that the people of Knoxville have asked for and need and deserve,” she said. “So that's things like … paving our roads, sidewalks, traffic calming, affordable housing and then other infrastructure needs.”
In light of this defeat, Kincannon said Tuesday that the city will simply have to move forward without the planned investments.
“You know, we won’t be able to get ahead of things as a fast growing city and some of our deferred maintenance will have to continue to be deferred, but we’ll do the best we can with the resources we have,” she said. “We always have a balanced budget, and we’ll continue to move forward to maintain our neighborhood infrastructure as best we can.”
WUOT News spoke to several Knoxville residents at the polls on Tuesday. Many of them, such as Derek Trimble, were conflicted about the sales tax referendum.
“I struggled with it mightily over the course of the last couple of weeks,” Trimble said. “They wanna raise taxes in the middle of a government shutdown during a pretty gnarly inflationary situation for a lot of people that are living paycheck to paycheck. At the same time, I want my city to be a better place … I voted yes in the hopes that the people that I've placed my trust in will steward that money well.”
For others, like Amy Palmer, it was a no-brainer.
“As I was filling it in, I thought, ‘who would vote for raising taxes?’ Honestly I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t want higher sales tax.”
Tuesday's turnout was well above average for a city election. Nearly 25,000 voters cast a ballot, up 59% from 15,700 in 2023. In addition to the contentious sales tax referendum, five of the city’s nine council seats were on the ballot. Check out the complete results below:
City Council District 1
Karyn Adams – 1,933 votes (67.09%)
Becky Jones – 948 votes (32.91%)
City Council District 2
Nathan Honeycutt – 3,662 votes (61.54%)
Melody Watts – 2,289 votes (38.46%)
City Council District 3
Doug Lloyd – 2,147 votes (52.69%)
Frank Ramey – 1,928 votes (47.31%)
City Council District 4
Matthew DeBardelaben – 3,530 votes (58%)
Jeff Talman – 2,556 votes (42%)
City Council District 6
Denzel Grant – 1,685 votes (60.61%)
Stan Johnson – 1,095 votes (39.39%)
City of Knoxville Sales Tax Referendum
“Shall the two and one-quarter percent (2.25%) local option sales tax rate currently levied throughout Knox County be increased to two and three-quarters percent (2.75%) in the City of Knoxville?”
For – 9,546 votes (38.45%)
Against – 15,284 votes (61.55%)
