City Budget

Baltimore City Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is trying to craft a budget that will trim expenses and property taxes to encourage an increase to the population ("First step to a better Baltimore," March 21). Reducing excessive city employees is a good first step. The big payoff would come from reexamining things the city does that are not done by competing, lower-tax suburbs. The mayor should engage an expert like former county executives Jim Smith of Baltimore County or Doug Duncan of Montgomery County to analyze things the city started doing when it was the largest, wealthiest jurisdiction, many of which enhance suburbanites' quality of life, that are no longer essential or affordable, and use the potential savings to help the city approach suburban tax rates.

Baltimore City school officials say the nearly $1.2 billion budget the system unveiled last week will fund a raft of new academic endeavors, among them a new team to upgrade instruction in the sciences to meet the higher standards of the new national "core" curriculum and additional programs for academically gifted students. This is all to the good if it helps the city attract and retain more young families with children for whom strong public schools are often the most important factor in choosing where to live.

One-third of children and teenagers who attend rec center activities will be shut out of programs under the gloomy budget scenario unveiled by Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake's administration, the head of recreation and parks said Friday. More than half of the city's recreation centers would be closed down, and funding for 13 neighborhood swimming and wading pools would dry up under the preliminary spending plan drafted by the city's Finance Department. The budget - which calls for layoffs of more than 600 workers and deep cuts to fire and police - has provoked outcry from residents, city workers and agency heads.

Baltimore school officials unveiled a $1.174 billion budget plan Tuesday, which they said focuses on academics with a new science team to implement curriculum, programs for advanced students and a shifting of staff in the central office. Enrollment is projected to increase in traditional schools by about 2,500 students, causing per-pupil funding to decrease by $40 from last year to $5,190. The annual amount could change if the system doesn't see the projected increase in students.

Baltimore's top financial officer and longtime budget writer said Monday he will retire from city government, the first Cabinet-level departure since Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake won the Democratic primary this month. Though not a household name, Edward J. Gallagher has been a behind-the-scenes force in shaping every Baltimore spending plan since he was hired in 1983. The city's finance director since 2005, he plans to remain in the job until the mayor's office completes a national search for a replacement.

City Council members voted Monday to approve the $1.3 billion budget proposed by Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, but a key committee postponed a decisive vote until Wednesday. The spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1 would increase the operating budget by 1 percent while cutting $65 million in expenses to close a shortfall. The council has the authority to cut the proposal, but may not increase spending. While the plan was approved by the full 15-member council meeting as the committee of the whole, it did not receive the necessary support from the five-member budget and appropriations committee, according to a spokesman for Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young.

When the Board of Estimates received the Schmok administration's proposal for a $2.072 billion budget yesterday, the following exchange took place between City Council President Mary Pat Clarke and Comptroller Jacqueline F. McLean.MPC: "The recession is officially over."JFM: "Who said so?"MPC: "The budget did."JFM: "No, it isn't, either."The local and national economy are sure to have many bumps ahead but the city budget proposal assumes smooth going for the municipal government. It expects public services to be continued without major cuts.

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.

Annapolis will get a parking garage off West Street and a new pool at Truxtun Park under the 1992 capital budget approved by the City Council Monday night.The budget includes $9.7 million in improvements and projects for fiscal 1992, which begins July 1. The city will raise $5.8 million by selling bonds. About $3.9 million will come from the state, federal government and local sources.The city will break ground this fall on the long-awaited Gotts Court parking garage. The $6.14 million garage will be built behind theArundel Center on Calvert Street.

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 City Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake is trying to craft a budget that will trim expenses and property taxes to encourage an increase to the population ("First step to a better Baltimore," March 21). Reducing excessive city employees is a good first step. The big payoff would come from reexamining things the city does that are not done by competing, lower-tax suburbs. The mayor should engage an expert like former county executives Jim Smith of Baltimore County or Doug Duncan of Montgomery County to analyze things the city started doing when it was the largest, wealthiest jurisdiction, many of which enhance suburbanites' quality of life, that are no longer essential or affordable, and use the potential savings to help the city approach suburban tax rates.

William J. Schmidt, a former department store buyer who later became director of administration for the Housing Authority of Baltimore City, died Monday at his Bel Air home of complications from Parkinson's disease. He was 79. The son of a Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. actuary and a homemaker, William Joseph Schmidt was born in Baltimore and raised on Aisquith Street. He was a 1951 graduate of Mount St. Joseph High School in Irvington and earned a bachelor's degree in 1955 in business administration from what is now Loyola University Maryland.

A firehouse built on North Avenue when Alcaeus Hooper was Baltimore's mayor in 1896 reopened Saturday after being shuttered for a year for renovations, allowing firefighters to return to a building described as the historic cornerstone of Walbrook. The city's latest mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, greeted neighborhood civic leaders and thanked residents for their patience. She applauded firefighters, too, noting that there has been just one fire death in the city this year after last year's 17, which was the lowest annual number of fatal fires since the department started keeping track in 1938.

The city's spending board agreed Wednesday to a $460,000 contract with a consulting firm to develop a 10-year financial plan for Baltimore. The contract with Public Financial Management calls for a "comprehensive examination" of the city's budget options, including reducing the property tax rate, officials said. The plan is due in nine months. The city's finance department produces three-year projections for the city budget but does not have the capability to perform the work that the private consultants will perform, a spokesman for Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said.

Baltimore's top financial officer and longtime budget writer said Monday he will retire from city government, the first Cabinet-level departure since Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake won the Democratic primary this month. Though not a household name, Edward J. Gallagher has been a behind-the-scenes force in shaping every Baltimore spending plan since he was hired in 1983. The city's finance director since 2005, he plans to remain in the job until the mayor's office completes a national search for a replacement.

Visitors to Baltimore not shepherded through on official tours or staying in the Inner Harbor see what members of the Society for International Development would describe as the Third World. The organization, whose members are luminaries of foreign aid, held its triennial meeting at the posh Omni Shoreham Hotel inWashington last weekend as debt ceiling battles were raging a couple miles away in the Capitol. It would have been better for the group to hold its meeting in Baltimore, as some of the suggestions aimed at bettering far-away places in Africa and Asia could have been picked up immediately here.

It was hot and uncomfortable for members of the Baltimore City Council last night. They sat high on a podium in the sweltering War Memorial, staring into the glare of television lights and listening as taxpayers from across the city told them the council taxes too much because it spends too much."

A $2.1 billion proposed Baltimore City budget that would eliminate or privatize several dozen jobs will be the subject of two days of public hearings before the City Council's Budget and Appropriations Committee this week. The budget, which will take effect in the fiscal year beginning July 1, is not as contentious as last year's, which called for about 175 people to be laid off. Still, the proposed cuts have met with criticism because some favored city services face the chopping block.

City Council members voted Monday to approve the $1.3 billion budget proposed by Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, but a key committee postponed a decisive vote until Wednesday. The spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1 would increase the operating budget by 1 percent while cutting $65 million in expenses to close a shortfall. The council has the authority to cut the proposal, but may not increase spending. While the plan was approved by the full 15-member council meeting as the committee of the whole, it did not receive the necessary support from the five-member budget and appropriations committee, according to a spokesman for Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young.

Aberdeen city government was recently criticized by some members of the public and one city council member for its failure to reduce spending. But despite a modest property tax rate decrease approved for the 2012 city budget, the tough economic climate hasn't deterred Aberdeen, or other local governments for that matter, from getting rid of a time honored perk – city-owned take home cars for employees. The city manger, however, says take-home cars for city staff are limited.