City Budget

When some Baltimore residents take to the War Memorial Building floor this evening to comment on next year's proposed city budget, the Taxpayers Night event will mark the 10th anniversary of the Baltimore Homeowners' Coalition.The homeowners' group of about 1,000 members formed in 1989 to stem the city's escalating tax rate. Members have watched the city property tax rate drop from $6 per $100 of assessed value to $5.82.Although the drop might not be viewed as dramatic, coalition organizers estimate that they have saved Baltimore property owners about $140 million by harping on city leaders to reduce spending and streamline city services.

Westminster officials intend to have a draft of the city's 1999-2000 budget ready for public meetings in April and May.The tentative schedule includes a meeting April 5 to review a draft of the proposal, a completed proposal April 12, and a work session with elected officials and staff April 19.A tax rate ordinance would be introduced during a Common Council meeting April 26. A public hearing on the tax rate and budget would be held May 3, and the budget...

Baltimore will eliminate 600 city positions over the next 18 months to avoid a budget deficit, according to a preliminary spending plan introduced yesterday.City Budget Director Edward J. Gallagher called the 2000 budget he delivered to the city's Board of Estimates the toughest in his 17-year career. Finances are being sapped by stagnating tax income because of population losses, leaving the city struggling to maintain basic services such as trash collection and housing inspections, Gallagher said.

Overtime costs in Baltimore's police and fire departments are chewing away at the city budget, helping produce a $10 million midyear deficit in city spending plans, a review shows.City budget officials attribute $3 million of excess to police overtime paid as a result of the clog in the city court system, while $5 million is because of staff vacancies at the Fire Department .Budget officials are comforted that city tax income is running $15 million over budget projections, enough to cover the deficit.

THESE ARE some of the best economic times in America's recent history, but you wouldn't know that living in Baltimore. The local tax base is flat. Decades of residential and commercial out-migration continue. Yet budget requests from municipal agencies keep growing. In short, Baltimore is living beyond its means.This is the backdrop to the recent $1.6 billion budget proposal, which calls for the elimination of nearly 600 jobs from the city's work force of 16,243 -- as a way to position Baltimore for tougher national economic times.

TWELVE YEARS AGO this Dec. 8, Kurt L. Schmoke made education the theme of his inauguration as Baltimore's 46th mayor. Some teachers and parents wept for joy.He said he wanted to be known as the "education mayor," the chief executive of the "city that reads." A decade later, Schmoke admitted that the system was "dysfunctioning," and two years after that, the lame-duck mayor finds himself having ceded part of his authority to a city-state "partnership" that amounts to a partial state takeover.

The first wave of layoffs has hit the city's Department of Parks and Recreation, where 52 workers ranging from janitors to administrators were given two weeks' notice Friday.The layoffs are the first in the city's plans to eliminate 575 positions to break even in next year's $1.8 billion budget. About 260 of the positions have been eliminated through retirements or voluntary departures, city budget officials said. But that leaves 315 more slots that need to be cut before the city budget is adopted by July 1.Baltimore faces $153 million in budget deficits over the next four years.

Baltimore will soon issue tickets with penalties up to $500 to residents who commit any of 65 city nuisance crimes, ranging from illegal trash dumping to animal cruelty.Following the lead of cities such as New York, Chicago and Philadelphia, Baltimore hopes to improve the quality of life in the city by taking enforcement responsibility out of the hands of criminal courts, where criminal citations from city agencies such as animal control and public works traditionally linger unresolved.Residents will be able to appeal the tickets -- which begin at $25 -- to a civil hearing officer hired by a newly created 13-member Environmental Control Board.

In one year, Baltimore has gone from a financially strapped city that closed recreation centers and threatened to raise taxes to having $60 million in extra cash in the city budget.Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke wants to spend those millions -- the result of a strong economy -- on pay raises, additional police officers and capital improvement projects.But as the City Council begins to scrutinize the mayor's $1.8 billion spending plan this week, some members are saying the city is so flush that it's time for a property tax cut."

Baltimore City Council members fail to understand the city budget and traditionally vote in racial blocks.No, that analysis was not made by an angry constituent, but by the former council liaison to Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke.Former Northeast Baltimore Councilwoman Vera P. Hall issued the report card in July while the 19-member council was in summer recess. The council returns to work tomorrow night.The 52-page analysis -- which the mayor requires annually from staff directors -- is brimming with frustration over the city's legislative processes.

The water main breaks that closed major Baltimore streets and disrupted rail service in April also washed away sizable chunks the city's budget. Fixing the 20-inch main that ruptured at Gay and Lombard streets on April 28 cost $222,523, according to figures from the city's finance department. That does not include thousands of dollars in police and fire overtime, or the lost work of city employees sent home because there was no water service in their buildings. The city spent $69,258 to repair another water main break the next day, when a 36-inch pipe burst in Halethorpe and delayed Amtrak service on the eastern seaboard.

Mayor Sheila Dixon's $2.2 billion budget for next year is no nip-and-tuck affair. It's austere across the board, but retains basic services without raising Baltimore's property tax rate, the highest in the state. The mayor was able to keep the focus on public safety, which is essential if Baltimore wants to continue last year's decrease in city murders. The budget also holds the line on after-school programs and summer jobs for city youths, another priority of Ms. Dixon, and maintains the city's financial commitment to schools as they continue needed reforms.

Facing outrage from recession-weary Baltimore residents and criticism from talk-radio hosts and union leaders, Mayor Sheila Dixon reversed course yesterday and announced that she will donate her $3,700 raise to a "city government charity." "I woke up this morning and said, 'You know what? It is not worth it,' " Dixon said. She said she hopes the decision will help "get things moving forward and stay focused on the bigger plan." The mayor plans to announce the recipients of the money today.

Wrong time to trim city police budget The editorial "Budget woes" (Nov. 17) briefly discusses the efforts of the Dixon administration to weigh in on the city's projected budget deficit, describes the city police and fire departments as "budget-busting" agencies and suggests that the city police "won't be able to spend millions on overtime that they routinely do." In fairness to the Police Department, it should be noted that many of the overtime expenditures are expected; however, the city never accounts for them in the budget for the Police Department even though the City Council has asked time and time again that overtime expenses be included as a necessary component of its budget.

Mayor Sheila Dixon plans to announce today steep, across-the-board spending cuts - potentially hundreds of millions of dollars - as Baltimore confronts a worsening economy and prepares for expected reductions in state aid. Most Baltimore agencies would have to cut spending by more than 12 percent in the next budget year, according to union officials and others who have been briefed on the plan. Police and fire budgets would be cut by about 5 percent. The cuts could reduce the city's $2.1 billion budget by as much as $200 million.

A divided Annapolis city council has passed an $81 million operating budget that keeps the tax rate flat, increases law enforcement spending and allows modest funding for nonprofits. The budget, approved 5-4 Monday night, closely follows Mayor Ellen O. Moyer's fiscal plan. It raises the starting salary for a police officer to $43,000, sets aside $500,000 for security cameras in high-crime areas and creates an Office of Youth & Community Action. It goes into effect July 1. Amendments, which will be paid for with a 0.45 percent across-the-board departmental cut, included $7,500 in community grants for the Kunta Kinte celebration and the Alex Haley memorial at City Dock, an additional $40,600 for cost-of-living adjustments for unrepresented sworn police officers, a reduction in funding for the downtown flower basket program from $30,000 to $10,000, and the elimination of a $410,595 public safety contingency fund, in an undetermined agreement that will allow city police officers to provide security to the Housing Authority of the City of Annapolis.

Baltimore officials abruptly canceled last night two City Council votes scheduled on the city budget, suggesting that last-minute negotiations over youth funding and property taxes might still be in play. Minutes before a council committee was scheduled to vote on the $2.94 billion budget, the City Council president's office announced that the hearing - and a council meeting on the budget scheduled for Monday - had been delayed indefinitely. The decision ground this year's previously speedy budget process to a halt and raised questions about whether the council is attempting to slow down the approval to wrest concessions from Mayor Sheila Dixon's administration.

The City Council finance committee is proposing nearly $1 million in additional expenditures to the city's $81 million operating budget, including the restoration of nonprofit grant money and the hiring of new employees. The increased funding is contingent on the passage of a proposal before the Anne Arundel County Council for an increase from 7 percent to 10 percent in the hotel tax. But the City Council and Annapolis Mayor Ellen O. Moyer have discussed the possibility of a 1 percent budget cut across all departments to fund the recommendations.

Dozens of advocates for community schools and other youth programs pleaded with city officials last night to maintain funding for their initiatives, arguing that proposed budget cuts would have a devastating effect on Baltimore's children. Speaking at a public hearing on the $2.92 billion city budget that was proposed last month by Mayor Sheila Dixon's administration, the advocates said the city must increase its budget for youth programs by $5 million to match the money spent last year.

Relying on a surge in property and income tax revenue to offset losses from a sliding economy, Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon proposed a modest budget yesterday with a small property tax cut and no increase in other levies. Predicting tougher times ahead, Dixon proposed a $2.92 billion budget, about 10.4 percent more than last year. The plan includes nominal increases for police, fire and schools but also cuts to parks and health programs and the elimination of 95 vacant positions. The spending plan, which must be approved by the City Council, continues for the fourth straight year the city's practice of reducing its property tax rate by 2 cents annually, though many residents will still pay more because of rising assessments.