Finance Department

Can't wait for the email from The Sun's finance department asking me why I went to the grocery store every day for three weeks. No big mystery there. I've turned over a new leaf - literally - and open each day here at spring training by picking up a bag of fresh lettuce for my lunch. Never have been one for rabbit food, but I'm studying for my upcoming physical and need to drop a few pounds before I get back to Baltimore in early March. So far, so good. I'm not the only one who is trying to get healthier this spring.

A funeral Mass for Matthew S. Hersl, a supervisor in the city of Baltimore's finance department and Little Italy neighborhood volunteer, will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at St. Leo the Great Church, South Exeter and Stiles streets in Little Italy. Mr. Hersl, who had worked for the city for 28 years and was also an avid Orioles fan, died April 9 after he was struck by a car while walking in front of City Hall.  

FLUSH WITH cash, some city politicians seem to have XTC forgotten that bad times inevitably follow good.Instead of planning for future adversities, they are pandering to various pressure groups. Spend, spend, spend is the credo of the day.This, of course, is awfully shortsighted. And it flies in the face of a strategy the city's finance department proposed to Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke in early 1991.The cornerstone of the finance department's plan was a recommendation that the city create a 15 percent set-aside from its revenue growth.

Can't wait for the email from The Sun's finance department asking me why I went to the grocery store every day for three weeks. No big mystery there. I've turned over a new leaf - literally - and open each day here at spring training by picking up a bag of fresh lettuce for my lunch. Never have been one for rabbit food, but I'm studying for my upcoming physical and need to drop a few pounds before I get back to Baltimore in early March. So far, so good. I'm not the only one who is trying to get healthier this spring.

A funeral Mass for Matthew S. Hersl, a supervisor in the city of Baltimore's finance department and Little Italy neighborhood volunteer, will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at St. Leo the Great Church, South Exeter and Stiles streets in Little Italy. Mr. Hersl, who had worked for the city for 28 years and was also an avid Orioles fan, died April 9 after he was struck by a car while walking in front of City Hall.  

Westminster City Council members had planned to relieve overcrowding in City Hall by moving the finance department into the former National Guard Armory on Longwell Avenue.Then they found out how much it would cost.Architect Martha Jones' preliminary cost estimate came in two weeks ago at $1.2 million, more than three times the $350,000 budgeted for the project.A major reason for the additional cost was that the finance department's space needs could be met only by putting it on the first and second floors, said Thomas B. Beyard, city planning director.

Baltimore has reached a point where the existing revenue base cannot support the current level of services. This is the conclusion of the city's Finance Department, which has issued a challenge to the Schmoke administration to improve the city's long-term financial health.The department's strategic plan includes a recommendation that the city create a 15 percent set-aside from its revenue growth for two purposes. One is to provide property tax relief either through an assessment cap or tax rate reduction.

Members of Baltimore's Board of Fire Commissioners will receive their final paychecks at the end of this month, after a recent discovery by the city's Finance Department that the members have not been eligible for a city stipend since 1996. A provision authorizing pay for the commissioners was removed from the city's charter when it was revised under Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's administration more than a decade ago. But, apparently, neither the commissioners nor the city department that writes the checks realized it. The board members have continued to receive nominal pay from the city - roughly $3,600 a year for each member and $4,200 for the president.

A property tax credit meant to lure new residents to Baltimore and spur development in impoverished neighborhoods instead rewards current city dwellers who inhabit booming parts of the city, according to a report issued by the city's Finance Department. In the past nine months, 75 percent of the applications for the program, called the Newly Constructed Dwelling Tax Credit, came from 10 neighborhoods, according to the finance data. Forty percent of the credits went to households earning more than $100,000 a year.

Circuit Court Clerk Frank M. Conaway is asking the Baltimore finance department to more quickly process land records, including the transfer of tax checks that go uncashed for long periods, he said.Conaway, a Democrat running for City Council president, said backlogs in the city's land records office have caused weeks of delays in the recording of deeds."It takes the city weeks to do simple clerical tasks that are done in a matter of days in most counties," said Conaway, who was elected in September.

A former District of Columbia and Richmond, Va., finance official will be named Baltimore's new director of finance on Monday, city officials said. Harry E. Black, a Baltimore native who wrote a guide to economic development for cities, will replace Edward Gallagher, who is retiring after 29 years, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's office announced. "We are excited to welcome Mr. Harry Black to City Hall as we work on the budget for the next fiscal year," Rawlings-Blake said in a statement.

Baltimore would need to attract more than half a million new residents in order to make up for the money it would lose by cutting property tax rates in half over the next four years, according to a report from the city's Finance Department. The city's property tax rate, which is more than twice that of the surrounding counties, is emerging as a key issue in the Democratic primary race for mayor. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake backs a gradual decline in the rate, while many of her challengers say a dramatic cut is necessary to stem decades of population loss in the city.

Annapolis Mayor Joshua J. Cohen said Monday night that city police are investigating the theft of more than $150,000 in checks and cash from a vault in the city's Finance Department last week. A bank deposit bag with checks totaling $149,843.21 and $3,982.59 in cash was removed from the Finance Department's vault between 2:30 p.m. June 7 and the next morning, according to a statement from the mayor late Monday. The theft was discovered when a courier arrived to pick up the funds to make a bank deposit.

Baltimore City Council members are threatening to cut pet programs from Mayor Sheila Dixon's office as they scour the city's $2.2 billion budget for money to offset her proposed cuts to recreation centers, community pools and Police Athletic League centers. Tuesday evening, they focused on the mayor's Office of Neighborhoods, describing the $580,000 program as "duplicative" with the services already provided by the city. "If I had to make a choice and it was the Mayor's Office of Neighborhoods or Parks and Recreation," said Councilman Edward Reisinger, "I can't see the rationale for laying off rec center directors."

A property tax credit meant to lure new residents to Baltimore and spur development in impoverished neighborhoods instead rewards current city dwellers who inhabit booming parts of the city, according to a report issued by the city's Finance Department. In the past nine months, 75 percent of the applications for the program, called the Newly Constructed Dwelling Tax Credit, came from 10 neighborhoods, according to the finance data. Forty percent of the credits went to households earning more than $100,000 a year.

The powerful panel that oversees Baltimore City Hall spending unanimously agreed Wednesday to give city agencies more leeway in making purchases, a change that officials believe will save the city money but that reduces oversight of some transactions. Under the new policy, city agencies will have the authority to make purchases of up to $5,000 without formal approval from the finance department. The previous limit was $1,000. "It is a lot of paperwork to put a requisition in," Mayor Sheila Dixon said.

For the second time in about a year, the Howard County auditor has criticized the police department for sloppy record keeping -- this time for losing track of more than 2,000 parking tickets.The earlier audit, conducted in October 1992, uncovered an $8,000 theft in the property section. Unlike the previous audit, no theft of county money has been uncovered.The missing tickets appear to be the result of careless handling and flawed procedures.Nonetheless, "when a book or ticket is unaccounted for, the possibility of misappropriation of county funds increases," said assistant auditor Brenda Dean.

Baltimore officials are investigating claims that a former city worker cheated scores of drivers by pocketing cash in bogus deals that were supposed to give discounts on parking fines. The parking fine collector -- whose name was not released -- issued paperwork to drivers who owed large parking fines so that they could renew their license plates with the state Motor Vehicle Administration, which is normally impossible without paying all fines, according to city officials. But the residents later complained they had been ripped off -- often by hundreds or thousands of dollars each -- when the city notified them that their fines still existed and had grown by $16 per month in penalties.

Members of Baltimore's Board of Fire Commissioners will receive their final paychecks at the end of this month, after a recent discovery by the city's Finance Department that the members have not been eligible for a city stipend since 1996. A provision authorizing pay for the commissioners was removed from the city's charter when it was revised under Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's administration more than a decade ago. But, apparently, neither the commissioners nor the city department that writes the checks realized it. The board members have continued to receive nominal pay from the city - roughly $3,600 a year for each member and $4,200 for the president.

Charles L. Benton Jr., a close aide to Gov. William Donald Schaefer whose financial acumen helped make Baltimore's revival possible, died of pneumonia yesterday at Union Memorial Hospital. The longtime city resident was 91. Mr. Benton oversaw Baltimore's finances for 30 years - first as budget director and then as head of the city finance department - but his influence at City Hall, and later at the State House, extended far beyond balancing the books. Mr. Schaefer, who was on a first-name basis with all of his chief deputies, regularly referred to his budget adviser as "Mr. Benton" - a mark of their mutual respect.