Baltimore City Mayor Sheila Dixon wants to use these numbers to attract high-end developers to revitalize run down shopping centers, like Northwood Plaza, where former City Councilman Kenneth Harris was killed in September. She says face-lifts for the centers would make them safer and plans to give tax breaks to developers to make them happen.

There are just a few things wrong with her logic.

First, making shopping centers safer would attract new development, not the other way around. If customers are scared to go shopping it will not matter if a new organic grocer arrives.

Second, if city residents are $1.2 billion better off than recognized, why are shopping centers floundering? Shouldn’t they be doing better than the Census figures would indicate?

Third, if revitalizing the shopping centers is the end goal, why not give tax breaks to current owners instead of outside developers?

Those who pour their life savings into businesses and homes in the city are rewarded for their good citizenship with extortionist tax rates that subsidize the city’s gifts to others.

The city does not need more studies nor more tax breaks for a select few — neither of which have lured new residents, created jobs or increased the tax base. It needs to fundamentally reform its tax structure to make Baltimore a desirable location to work and live. That means slashing in half its property tax rate — more than twice as high as  everywhere else in the state — for everyone. The Mayor’s own Blue Ribbon Committee even said the tax rate is a “major barrier to the city’s growth and development.” So far she has chosen to ignore the evidence against it.

We can debate how to cut — by squeezing spending, asking for state assistance during a transition period and other methods. But let’s get started on the discussion. Clinging to failed policies will only turn the slow trickle of residents and jobs out of Baltimore into tax-friendlier counties into a flood.