Baltimore is slashing police and fire overtime and extending a hiring freeze to grapple with a $36.5 million shortfall brought on by declining revenues and a projected spike in public safety costs, city officials told The Baltimore Sun yesterday.
The initial round of cuts should be enough to keep Baltimore's budget balanced - provided the economy doesn't get any worse, city officials said. But with global financial markets in disarray and the state considering reductions in aid to local governments to solve its own budget problems, more reductions could be on the way.
"My hope is that this does not take away from the momentum we are building," Mayor Sheila Dixon said yesterday. "We hope that people will ride through this. That is what I'm hoping."
The city's action comes days after Gov. Martin O'Malley's administration trimmed $300 million from the state budget and amid spending cuts in several Maryland counties. Prince George's County, for example, has ordered furloughs for employees, a step that Baltimore has yet to take.
The city's problems stem from a simultaneous $15 million drop in recordation and transfer taxes as a result of the weak housing market and from a projected $21 million increase in police and fire overtime. The cuts will take effect Nov. 1 and amount to 2 percent of the city's $2.1 billion budget.
The current round of cuts is designed to avoid any direct impact on city services. However, Dixon said yesterday that she's considering cutting trash collection to once a week and reducing recycling days. She also said that layoffs to the city's 15,000-person work force are still on the table but that she hopes to avoid them.
"It is going to be a matter of employees stepping up," she said. "It is a matter of saying, 'I'm doing more to get the job done. The goal is to ride through this recession and not lose my job.' "
Deputy Mayor Christopher Thomaskutty said that by acting early - the city is just four months into this budget year - the mayor hopes to stave off deeper cuts.
"The message we're sending to everyone across the city is this is the first round. Be as vigilant as you can. Cut as much excess as you can," he said, noting that the city doesn't yet have complete spending figures from the first three months of the budget year. "We'd be foolish not to let everyone know that we would anticipate additional cuts."
