Baltimore City Council passes mayor’s $4.2B budget with no amendments

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott’s proposed $4.2 billion budget was approved by the Baltimore City Council with no amendments Monday, closing the door on an amicable budget season that will be Council President Nick Mosby’s last.

Scott’s plan, which was also approved Monday by the mayor-controlled Board of Estimates, will keep the city’s property tax rate steady and will lean on parking revenues and trims to vacant positions across the city to fill a $60 million deficit. The spending plan includes $3.5 billion for operating expenses and $732 million in capital costs.

The budget, which must be signed by Scott by the end of the month, represents a modest decrease in overall spending from fiscal year 2024 when city officials approved a $4.4 billion spending plan.

Mosby said the council was “pretty content” with Scott’s proposal but members were also able to reach an agreement on several items that did not require amendments to the budget. He credited the council’s earlier involvement in the budget process for a less contentious finale.

“The more than the administration works with the council throughout the budget year in formalizing the budget, the better outcome we get,” he said.

In a statement released shortly after the council’s vote, Scott said the budget represented an agreement both the council and the administration could be proud of.

“This budget maintains important investments that will sustain our historic reductions in gun violence, bolster our work to support Baltimore’s young people through recreation and parks and unprecedented funding in city schools, and continue to modernize city government to improve services for all residents,” he said.

To cover the budget’s almost $62 million structural hole, Baltimore is relying heavily on cuts to vacant positions across city agencies and a shift in funding for city police positions from Baltimore’s general fund to a state revenue source that helps pay for civilian positions. City officials anticipate saving $13.3 million by eliminating 89 vacant positions, 55 of which are in the city’s police department.

An additional $20 million in savings will come from cuts across other agency budgets that administration officials said would not affect city services. Cuts will come from areas like the Health Department where costs were offset by the city school system picking up the cost of providing some in-school health services.

About $2.6 million would come from increased parking enforcement in residential zones using license plate readers, while $3.2 million is expected to be raised with the restoration of parking penalties. Those penalties, due after parking tickets go unpaid, have been suspended since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mosby said the administration and the council reached an agreement that calls for increasing the salary and benefits for city housing inspectors and maintaining the past funding level for the Main Street neighborhood revitalization program. Neither change required an amendment to the budget, he said.

The council voted 14-0 in favor of several budget bills. Councilman Zeke Cohen was absent.

The council’s breezy approval of the spending plan Monday stood in contrast to one year prior when the group made $12 million in alterations to Scott’s spending plan, exercising budgeting power granted to the council for the first time in a century. The new power, which allows the council to make cuts and additions to the budget, was approved by voters via a charter amendment in 2020. Previously, the council had been unable to reallocate any money that was cut, and instead had to rely on the mayor.

Amendments to the 2024 budget included the reallocation of funding to buy new firetrucks, purchase new city surveillance cameras and fund a vocational training program. The council also made a $1.7 million temporary cut to the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts amid concerns about its ability to manage city festivals and other arts programming. That funding was restored throughout the year.

The council discussed the budget proposal at length during a hearing process that spanned two weeks. Council members drilled down on fire department funding, investments in violence interruption programs and service delivered by the Department of Public Works when sewage pipes back up into homes. Some, like Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates, used the hearings to make the case to hire additional staff. Bates said he needed at least 10, but ideally 20 additional prosecutors during a hearing earlier this month. Because the council passed the budget as proposed, that request was not honored.

The council’s approval came nine days ahead of a June 26 deadline to finalize the fiscal year 2025 budget plan. The current fiscal year ends June 30.

Ahead of the release of Scott’s proposal in April, city budget officials issued several stark warnings about the financial conditions for the year that did not bear out. Officials initially said they expected to face a $107 million structural deficit, the difference between revenue raised by the city and the cost of delivering services. The final figure was closer to $60 million.

The difference was realized through property tax revenues, estimates for which came in higher than anticipated for the southernmost swath of the city, and the city’s tab for the state-mandated Blueprint for Maryland’s Future, which increased by only $3 million for fiscal year 2025 rather than the $15 million bump that was anticipated.

Baltimore’s budget was heavily impacted in fiscal year 2024 by the Blueprint, a state program that is slated to fund a variety of programs including increasing teacher salaries, putting more counselors and health professionals in schools and giving extra support to schools with many poor students.

The finalization of the 2024 budget comes as some city officials have been sounding the alarm about upcoming budget challenge. A question likely to appear on ballots this fall would ask city voters to step down and cap the city’s property tax rate over a period of seven years. The proposal, spearheaded by a coalition of economists and former city officials calling themselves Renew Baltimore, calls for the tax rate to be cut from 2.248% to 1.2%.

Proponents argue the cut will attract new residents and businesses to the city, increasing other revenues for the city. Opponents, who include Scott and some members of the City Council, have argued the move would decimate the city’s budget and force catastrophic cuts to city services.

Organizers behind the ballot question have collected more than 23,000 signatures in support, all but guaranteeing the question a spot on the ballot. Just 10,000 signatures are required to place an item on the ballot. Ballot measures almost always pass in Baltimore. A ballot question has not failed in the last 20 years.