Property Tax Rate

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's administration is gearing up for a tough fight over her plan to raise Baltimore's bottle tax to pay for repairs to dilapidated city schools. A bill to increase the 2-cent tax to 5 cents – and devote all bottle-tax revenue to school renovation and repairs – could be introduced as early as the City Council's first meeting of the year Jan. 9, officials said. While education advocates support the measure, it is strongly opposed by retailers and the beverage industry.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake hopes to attract 10,000 families to Baltimore in the next decade — which would reverse more than a half-century of population decline — and would like to serve at least one more term beyond the one she begins Tuesday. "If Baltimore is to have a future, the leadership in the city has to focus on making the city a vibrant, growing city," Rawlings-Blake said in an interview Monday. "If you're not focused on growing it, you're resigned to a slow death.

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.

At a panel discussion on the city's property tax rate, Joseph T. "Jody" Landers took to the lectern in the manner of a professor. He began by admonishing the only other Democratic mayoral challenger to show at the event — state Sen. Catherine Pugh — for what he apparently viewed as a glaring inaccuracy in the nomenclature she used to describe the city's infamous inventory of vacant homes. Instead of saying that there were 47,000 "boarded-up homes" in Baltimore, Landers said, she should have called them "vacant housing units.

We all knew this was coming. The 2010 Census revealed that Baltimore continued to lose population over the past 10 years — albeit at a slower pace than in previous decades — and with Maryland's decennial redistricting process under way, it seems likely that the city's representation in Annapolis will again be diminished. The wailing and gnashing of teeth in response to that prospect has begun. Before the doomsayers get carried away, a little perspective is perhaps in order.

For the third year in a row, Harford County's tax rate would remain at $2.73 per $100 of assessed value for the next fiscal year. From The Aegis of May 29, 1986 For the third year in a row, Harford County's tax rate would remain at $2.73 per $100 of assessed value for the next fiscal year. The Harford County Council had finished its review of the FY1986-1987 budget, called the "tamest" in 13 years, and approved the $108 million budget, 7 percent higher than the previous year.

The Anne Arundel County Council raised the county property tax rate Tuesday, as it passed a budget plan that includes a steep funding decrease to the county's community college and delays a new facility for one of its most academically successful high schools. The council has been sharply divided during deliberations over the $1.2 billion spending plan for next fiscal year, discussing changes for more than 12 hours in one day last week. Members approved the rate increase — a hike of 3 cents per $100 of assessed value that was proposed by County Executive John R. Leopold — by a 4-3 vote.

Howard County residents would see no property tax rate increase and employees would get no cost-of-living pay raises, but would not suffer a third year of unpaid furloughs, in County Executive Ken Ulman's $1.56 billion budget proposal for the fiscal year starting July 1. General fund spending, which represents county government-generated revenue, would increase 5.6 percent, reversing last year's 3.2 percent decline. More than half of the new spending is driven by costs over which the county has little control, such as higher fuel and utility costs, health insurance and debt interest.

Mr. President, Members of the City Council, friends and colleagues in government, faithful clergy, people of Baltimore, thank you for the opportunity to report to you on the state of our City and to share our vision to move Baltimore forward. Mr. President, I want to congratulate you on your first year as the leader of this important body. We have worked together, confronted many challenges and crises and made progress on the key issues that matter most to Baltimore's families. To all Members of the Council, thank you for your leadership representing the people of your individual districts as well as your sincere desire to do what is best for the City as a whole.