Four days into a marathon session of hearings on the 2010 budget, the Baltimore City Council members were still steamed.
East Baltimore's normally silent councilman, Warren Branch, hollered at the head of the city's largest department, demanding to know why public works has kept four public information officers while another department cut services for children.
"I've never seen these folks," Branch yelled, referring to three of the spokesmen. "I have rec centers closing in my district. I have nowhere for those kids to go. I have a problem with that."
Though the city's legislative body has always contained a few members willing to throw noisy fits, the group has rarely marshaled its discontent into substantial change when it comes to budgeting. The council has a limited role in influencing how the mayor chooses to spend money - by law, the council may delete spending but can't add it or even transfer funds.
But this year could be different.
Council members are expressing anger over choices made by Mayor Sheila Dixon's $2.2 billion operating budget. They appear largely united against Dixon's proposal to close recreation and child care centers, shorten pool hours and discontinue Police Athletic League programs. They're threatening to take away funding in other areas, such as the mayor's $580,000 community outreach office and her $700,000 cable television station.
They also have asked city financial officers about tapping into the city's emergency reserves to find more money.
Whether the council will turn talk into action remains to be seen.
Council members are to adopt a spending plan before the next fiscal year begins July 1. But at each hearing, they complained of being shut out of the process in a year of belt-tightening that has squeezed what they say are their priority programs.
In the past, if the agency cuts that the council made were not shifted by the mayor to other parts of the budget, the reductions go toward cutting the property tax.
Dixon said she has been open to the council's input on the budget, pointing to how on Friday she was able to restore funding to two child care centers, and hopes the "process will smooth itself out." Still, she acknowledged an uptick in the rhetoric this year.
"Some of them have gotten a little more emotional than I've seen in the past, and that concerns me," she said. "This is not about emotions. It is about looking at the facts. Where they see some concerns, let's sit down and talk about it."
