What part of failure does Baltimore City Mayor Sheila Dixon not understand? Do the decrepit ruins of West Baltimore and the declining population and job numbers from the past half-century make her think: “Success! Time to raise taxes!”?
What other reason would lead her to halt the long-planned 2-cent cut to property tax rates? High taxes ? a rate double that of surrounding jurisdictions and one of the highest in the nation ? have killed this city. Her own Blue Ribbon Committee said as much late last year. “Many believe that the high property tax rate serves as a disincentive for residents and businesses to locate in the City of Baltimore; the Committee is convinced that is the case.”
We know the budget situation stinks. The 2009 preliminary budget lays it out in detail: More foreclosures, fewer property sales and corresponding lower taxes and fees for the treasury to accompany them. But why then does the mayor want to increase the budget by 10.4 percent from the previous year? And why does she spring for raises for city employees and promise job security for them at a cost of $30.1 million ? about six times the amount that the proposed cut would have eliminated from the city budget ? at a time when many residents are worried about losing their jobs and paying their mortgages?
Not including in the budget the annual cut ? part of a long-term plan that has cut property tax rates the past three years ? hurts the people who are saving this city ? the ones who invested in it with their fortunes and their lives and their sweat equity, if last weekend?s spring neighborhood cleanup is any evidence. Other elected officials, including County Executives Ken Ulman in Howard and Jim Smith in Baltimore County, have resisted picking their residents? pockets.
Cutting the budget should be her first impulse. Those salary increases would be a good start. Besides, other mechanisms exist to raise revenue, including asking the city?s big nonprofit hospitals to contribute more for essential services because their tax exemptions force home-
owners to subsidize them even as they earn millions each year. Slicing the property tax rate in half over time will also generate new income as new residents and businesses move into the city.
Don?t fail us, Mayor Dixon. And don?t fail the state. Keeping taxes high is a recipe for maintaining the cycle of heavy tax subsidies to the city to make up for its inability to create jobs and grow. We know high taxes don?t work. How much more evidence do you need to stop digging the city?s grave?
