Posts Tagged ‘property taxes’

If Baltimore wants to save money then give residents the option of receiving bills online

Posted by ameister on Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

If you own a house in Baltimore then in theory you receive numerous bills and notices via snail mail from the city over the course of a year. Sometimes the bills are lost in mail (probably never mailed out in the first place) and you eventually find out you have all sorts of lovely fines tacked on to the original high bill that you never received.  It is just another ugly aspect of city living that pile up over time and drive people away from the city.

Credit card companies, phone companies, and energy companies all give us the option of receiving bills online only. It saves the companies money because they do not have to pay postage or printing costs and it is environmentally friendly. Imagine if the city allowed us to opt out of receiving our water bills, tax bills, rental registration bills, and other notices via snail mail.  There would be no more “lost in the mail” excuses and the city would save on postage and printing costs. I definitely would choose to receive my water bills electronically.

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I like parking ticket amnesty more than tax hikes

Posted by ameister on Monday, May 10th, 2010

Last Monday Investigative voice published an excellent article about the possibility of parking ticket amnesty in Baltimore.  The City Council is considering allowing people with unpaid parking tickets to pay their tickets without fines for a limited amount of time. This last happened in 2003 and was not supposed to happen again until at the earliest in 2013.

In these desperate economic times I think it is at least worth a try to issue a temporary parking ticket amnesty and see how much money is raised. It can’t hurt and it is better than new fees and taxes for the rest of us.

I have covered issues related to this one in the past and there is a facebook thread that talks about parking ticket amnesty here.

Thanks again to Investigative Voice for bringing this issue into the spotlight.

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No hidden taxes on homeowner occupants

Posted by ameister on Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

The Baltimore Sun says the following are some of the Mayor’s revenue generation ideas:

Fee Cost Projected revenue
Hospital and university bed tax $350 per bed per year $4.12 million
Parking fines $4-$60 increases $1.68 million
Beverage container tax 4 cents $10.75 million
Property tax early pay discount Decrease from 1% discount to .5% for paying in July, Eliminate .5% discount for paying in August $2.5 million
Hotel tax Increase from 7.5% to 10% $3.9 million
Income tax Increase from 3.05% to 3.20% $5.9 million
Telecommunication tax Increase from $3.50 to $4.00 per month for most types of phone lines $3.75 million
Parking tax Increase from 16% to 20% $5.8 million
Energy tax Increase 15% $8.16 million

Revenue generation is just one way of closing the $121 million budget gap. It appears that our leaders want to generate some of their revenue from people who live outside of the city (parking tax, hotel tax, and bed tax). They are on the right track. There is no way that property owning city residents should be squeezed anymore though. An increase in the income tax is just another way to get money out of homeowners without raising property taxes. The energy tax and the telecommunications tax will also hurt the already overburdened city home owner occupant. Home owner occupants are what Baltimore can least afford to lose.

Our leaders can not fear mass bureaucratic firings and pay cuts. Many of the people who work for the city do not live in the city so firing some of them would fit with the theme of having those who do not live in the city share the burden.

Even though I usually pay my property taxes early I can accept the elimination of this discount. I doubt that many people pay their property taxes early anyway. I think the bottle tax will hurt local businesses and thus it should not even be considered.

If parking meters function correctly and parking enforcement is fair and just, then I can deal with increased parking fines. Read the street signs and you should be fine. This is another fee that should hurt outsiders more than residents.

Every elected official should take a 20% pay cut. I noticed the Mayor did not make that suggestion.

Fire some useless bureaucrats before you make me pay a penny more to fund the ridiculous salaries and benefits of other useless bureaucrats.

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My review of the state of the city speech

Posted by ameister on Wednesday, February 24th, 2010

Mayor Rawlings-Blake rocked Sheila Dixon on Monday! Her speech was head and shoulders above Dixon’s speech from last year. The real question is if this Mayor can bring about the radical (for Baltimore at least) change that she spoke about in her speech.

The event started out in classic Baltimore fashion with City Council President Jack Young stumbling through his opening statements. The man is not a good public speaker. The Mayor’s mastery of her speech made his words seem even more lacking than they originally appeared. Young had a nice light suit on though. That was a positive I guess. Young gave the mayor flowers before her speech.

Since politicians have huge egos they had to introduce all the visiting politicians that were in attendance. Elijah Cummings, Curt Anderson, Melvin Stukes, Joan Pratt, union leader Glen Middleton , a firefighters’ union rep, a school union rep, a police union rep, Judge Holland, and Helen Bentley were all announced. Patricia Jessamy was not there. I was worried that with all those union people present that the Mayor would promise them benefits at the expense of the taxpayer. She did not even come close to doing that though.

The Mayor got down to business right away. The differences between her style of speaking and Dixon’s style were noticeable immediately. The mayor spoke in a clear calm voice. Her speech was to the point, short yet concise, and forward looking. She actually brought up non-fluff topics that could cause controversy! You can watch the entire speech here. After watching this speech one has to wonder why we were not embarrassed by the former Mayor every time she spoke. Yesterday’s speech was a breath of fresh air on so many different levels. It was a new beginning and a renewal of a kind of Baltimore pride that had been lacking during the Dixon years.

After the light business suit wearing Mayor thanked her benefactors (O’Malley and Cummings) she jumped right into a subject that Dixon had avoided- Property taxes! The Mayor is sending a signal to the citizens that she is very much aware of the fiscal problems of this city and that property taxes are one of the biggest economic problems many citizens deal with. It was refreshing to at least hear that this mayor cares about basic municipal economics and fiscal responsibility.

“$120 million equals twenty-two-hundred City employees or 55% of our civilian workforce.”

If I were her I would try to fire as many of them as possible in order to make up the impending $120 million deficit.

“Mark these words, remember them and factor them into our actions and decisions in the coming days: This $120 million deficit is brutal and will hit all of our citizens hard. I speak plainly and bluntly. If we sugar coat our problems, we will never rise above and solve them.”

The Mayor did what I thought she would not do, she straight up told us we had a problem that would be painful to fix. She even brought up the always hush-hush “pension time-bomb”.  He speech was not union-friendly! I was shocked.

“Chief among these sacrifices is pension reform for police officers and firefighters.”

Wow! Has someone from the Mayor’s office been reading this blog?

“Despite a deficit equal to a thirty-six cent increase on the property tax rate, if we work together, we can pledge we will not raise property taxes to fix this budget gap.”

Bravo!!!!

“Finally, I’m cutting the entire Mayor’s Office budget by 10%. We will do more with less.”

Has mild fiscal responsibility really returned to Baltimore? Please let the Mayor’s words turn into actions!

The transcript of the Mayor’s speech can be found here.

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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.”

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The people of the suburbs need to return

Posted by ameister on Monday, November 30th, 2009

A few Tuesdays ago I found myself in Baltimore’s northwestern suburbs. Around 9AM I received a phone call from my grandmother asking me to pick her up off of Greenspring Avenue in Pikesville and take her to a doctor’s appointment also off of Greenspring. It seemed like an easy request. I would need to get on to 795 then 695 and finally the Greenspring exit off of 695. It was after 9AM so rush hour had to be over.

A little before 9:30 I ran into my first problem in the middle of 795. Traffic suddenly slowed to a crawl. On the radio they were talking about problems on 83 and both sides of 695. I quickly figured out that 795 was backed up all the way to 695. Eventually I could see 695, both sides of it were totally backed up! How can people put up with situations like this every day? In the city there always is some sort of escape route in most traffic situation. I was trapped on 695 until Park Heights (where I took a masterful back route using Stevenson road and Old Court). I had a lot of time to think during this frustrating journey. I know there has to be a substantial number of people who commute like this who would give it all up to live in Baltimore if Baltimore had a better reputation and property tax structure. The self-employed lifestyle that I live in Baltimore is far more rewarding and less frustrating than sitting in endless traffic jams. The city of Baltimore needs to do a better job of marketing itself to people who hate the situation I found myself in on that Tuesday. There is no shame in trying to make Baltimore a livable place for the middle class descendants of the people who once lived here. We need their property tax revenue and they need to quit these insane traffic jammed commutes.

The final destination on my journey was a brand new medical complex located at the new quarry development off of Greenspring in Pikesville. A few years ago this area was just a huge hole in the ground, but today it is a sprawling development filed with overpriced condos, houses, doctors, and stores that cater to the over-60 crowd that is stuck in and around the development. There are also plenty of younger people who live in the vicinity and patronize the businesses there. With all the empty houses and lots in Baltimore they still find numerous people and businesses that are willing to invest in gigantic new boring developments based around a hole in the ground in the county.  We need leadership in Baltimore that will come up with creative solutions that will get some of these people back into the city. Selling out to corrupt developers that produce inferior products is not a creative solution by the way. Property Taxes and public safety are two huge issues that must be properly addressed before the city can really compete.

Below are two photos I took at the quarry. To be there in person and to have seen what was once there really shows how desperate the situation is for Baltimore City. In the county a hole in the ground becomes a sprawling city while in Baltimore parts of a once sprawling city become a hole.
quarry1

quarry2

Start the Revolution!

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