Posts Tagged ‘George Della’

Politics in the 46th legislative district

Posted by ameister on Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

The 46th Legislative District is located in southern Baltimore and includes neighborhoods like Cherry Hill, Federal Hill, Canton, and Fells Point. George Della represents the district in the State Senate.  Carolyn Krysiak, Peter Hammen, and Brian McHale represent the 46th in the house of delegates. There are rumors that Krysiak may not run again. She only has $3457.26 in her campaign bank account according to the latest campaign finance report. These rumors have generated interest in the 46th district house of delegate’s race from non-incumbents. Luke Clippinger is running, Mike Mitchell of Habitat for Humanity has an open campaign account with $568.40 in the bank, and I have heard about some young energetic newcomers with some backing who have interest in running. We need to keep an eye on this race, especially if Krysiak announces she is not going to run.

Everyone knows that 46th district king maker George Della controls the politics of his district in an old school kind of way. I am not a big fan of establishment machine control over politics. There are rumors that Della will run this time and then retire before the 2014 election and get Brian McHale appointed to his state senate seat. Della will then get another person from his crew appointed to fill the vacancy in the house of delegates. You have to love when the entrenched political establishment takes away voting power from the citizens. What does it say about a person when they are running for office in order to eventually give their buddy their seat?  This can all be avoided if the people of the 46th district wake up, do some research, and vote all the incumbents out in 2010. Good luck to the newcomers, we need a change all over Baltimore.

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Higher property taxes for vacant houses in Baltimore

Posted by ameister on Thursday, February 18th, 2010

State Senator George Della of the 46th District filed Senate Bill 889 a few days ago. The bill’s goals are to encourage vacant property owners to renovate their properties and to possibly generate enough tax revenue to lead to a reduction in the overall property tax rate.  I think it is a good first step in altering Baltimore’s property tax structure.  I do not think it will be able to generate enough revenue to lower the property tax rate in the city and I fear revenue that it might generate will be used on wasteful new programs. It is worth a try though.

I think it is also worth it to directly reward Baltimore homeowner occupants with a drastic property tax cut. I feel this would be the most beneficial move the city could make. Home ownership costs would decrease if the owner occupant property tax rate was dropped drastically and the result would be more interest in being a Baltimore city homeowner. Higher property taxes for vacant and uninhabitable real property in Baltimore will make investors think about selling or renovating but that does not necessarily mean new home owner occupants. If this bill becomes law then vacant and uninhabitable real property prices will drop and I feel that is a positive.

I received an email from a reader who does not like this bill. Here are his reasons (he describes why a supporter likes this bill at first):

“Basically what happened to him was he bought into a neighborhood that was half – three quarters redeveloped and paid a pretty penny for his place and
has high taxes. The real estate bubble burst and projects in his area went
on hold. It upsets him to come outside and see projects not completed. He
now wants these developers to pay higher taxes.

This is against everything I was taught about the tax system. And in general
is just vindictive. It also will make the rich richer and keep the poor
poor. Any fledgling developer will need more money to start into the market.
I just think it is a bad idea. I call it the “ugly tax” because if your
property is ugly it gets charged more.”

Tags: , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments »