The Marilyn Mosby Criminal Defense Fund.

https://cityservices.baltimorecity.gov/resources/FY23_SOTA_final.pdf

Pay more, receive less. Learn to love it I guess?

I mean it's always felt that way, but the last couple of years have been total highway robbery.

Up in flames

Don’t disagree at all. I keep asking when we will get a refund for all the tax $ they collect for the services they don’t provide. Can’t seem to get an answer

I wonder the same.. they don’t seem to go to schools or infrastructure

some mishandled areas it seems their Money goes to:

Paying over-reported and unmonitored OT to City Cops and some rotten apples (not all But it’s rampant)

Over compensation for revolving door of some misfits running the city

Charming isn’t it?

Agree it is not going to city services, maintenance and general cleanliness and upkeep. And they don’t pay contracts nor contractors for services they sign contracts for so they are tangled up in litigious cycles.the list goes on of what they should do but the Mayor is far behind. maybe he should stay off TV and all the public PR events and get to work.

BPD has cost tens of millions in lawsuits over the last decade or so. Also tons goes to prosecutors trying all those cases.

Honestly though the city should be improving based on how much they collect in taxes. All these houses getting renovated have drastically increased property tax revenue in the city but, as has been pointed out, the city has not figured out how to collect trash, charge for water or maintain roads.

Paying police misconduct claims?

In my neighborhood: My recycle is picked up every two weeks, street sweep is every two weeks on Wednesdays.

But I would like for the speed humps to get fixed.

Yup. Just found out they’re no longer doing graffiti mitigation based on a call to 311 a couple weeks ago.

>It wasn't too long ago that I was getting recycling picked up every week

Recycling hasn't been picked up weekly since a little after covid after started. From what I remember BPD hasn't gotten back to the staffing levels they had pre-covid. My guess is like everywhere else the labor shortage is preventing them from returning to the same staffing levels as before for the same budget. So ironically they probably need to spend more of 'your tax dollars' to hire the workers.

Considering there’s only 11 schools without Ac now and they’re actively building new schools and renovating it’s definitely going to schools

Let’s not forget footing the bill for “developers” to put hotels, and other frivolous projects that were bribed from passing.

Population decline with the same expensive urban problems.

Is it just me, or does this look kinda bad? Like the graphs on p. 22 and 30, especially?

That might be more state funding — there was a big chunk of covid relief funding that went to city schools too.

Taking the money away when times are tough should set things straight!

Prosecuting and public defending disgraced state attorneys and her former lawyers

That’s crazy. I’ve noticed that on the Remington Ave bridge. It looks awful!

Eh. Agencies I've worked for or with at the city have all been about 15-30% under staffed/unfilled positions. So budget actuals are going to run short. Outside of that, having less staff means less workers to do those tasks. Also costs of operating have increase exponentially. Materials alone have soared budgets for projects. So repairing vehicles like trash/recycling is going to fall behind due to costs and availability of materials and labor.

Recruitment of staff is difficult as well considering how low the pay is around here. And once hired there is little to no raise or pay increase to expect. Management received 2% last year and will coming this July get another 2%. Meanwhile insurance and other benefit costs went up 12%.

Highest per Capita police spending of any city in the US.

It's a federal trial, so no.

How do you find out what streets get sweeped, ours in canton definitely needs it stepping in like 6 inches of mud getting out of my car everyday

You say ‘highway robbery’ and Ezpass bursts through the wall like the KoolAid man

Yes especially the insane amount i pay in property taxes

Why do they need to spend more money to have less workers? I genuinely don't understand

Here’s a recent update on that: Who Removes the Graffiti in Baltimore? - Maryland Curiosity Bureau (WYPR)

Graffiti keeps rent low.

Pretty sure that's false. At $560M we certainly spend more than we should for 600K people, but there are other cities that spend more per person. Uvalde comes to mind because of the closer look articles gave to their budget. For 15,312 people they spend $25.3M on police. So they spend $1652 per person vs $933 per person here in Bmore.

You're right. Bmore is the most per Capita of major cities.

From what I’ve seen the difference in service level is getting greater, less hidden. I live in the Saint Agnes neighborhood, a tiny neighborhood across Wilkens from Violetville. We’re technically part of the Violetville neighborhood group. My area is lucky if we get recycling pick up every other month, not every other week. The street sweeper can’t fit down our streets anymore because the tractor trailers, illegally parked but never ticketed, take up too much room. Several trees fell last spring and are still on the curb except for the large branches neighbors were able to move out of the way. The level of services here dropped dramatically in the last few years.

On the other hand I went to a neighborhood meeting last month where people complained the councilwoman’s friends who co-founded a rival community group with her, receive special DPW cleaning services above and beyond normal. I was doubtful until the man showed a video compilation of DPW crews sweeping that woman’s back patio and cleaning up leaves in the alley every week, all while other parts of the neighborhood don’t get baseline services.

I don’t know if the overall level of services dropped in the city, or if people are more blatant about misusing city services because it goes unchecked. Whichever it is, it’s much worse now than it ever was before.

This puts us at #4: https://advisorsmith.com/data/cities-that-spend-the-most-and-least-on-police/?amp=1

Edit: when I look at 2020 data and cities over 500K it does look like we're top. I wonder how much it's changed in 3 years though.

Well, the current budget for the Bureau of Solid Waste is $27.5 million and BPD spent $33 million on police OT last year (down from $44 million the year before), so you do the math.

At least with BPD the police charge the city a lot of overtime, and a lot of it is fake because the city has no control or accountability of the cops.

Free breakfast and lunch for all public school students who want it. Those who need the free meals are grateful.

It really doesn't, it just makes the people that live here have to look at a dumb tag every day.

What neighborhood is this? From my experience the difference between neighborhoods is getting bigger.

Yes. You have correctly identified the sole purpose of graffiti: to make people look at your dumb tag every day. Just because you don’t like it, doesn’t mean it isn’t art. Certainly seems to have gotten an emotional response here, and isn’t that the entire point of art? To evoke emotion and feelings inside a person? I certainly think so.

Regardless of your feelings about the merits of tagging, I also think there are much larger problems we can throw that money at rather than wasting it on removing paint from a bridge or whatever. Paint that is going to be reapplied at the writer’s earliest opportunity. I say just enjoy some local art.

School lunches are federally funded.

They have control. And it's to cover events and shifts.

Edit: The downvotes are delicious.

Serious mud issues at street corners in Fells Point. The sweeping ain't happening here.

You think the police union is the only union that is grifting in Baltimore city?

What? Our schools are extremely well funded.

Those are US government dollars. It's in federal court.

I saw a full dump truck getting towed by a tow truck the other day.

To the bloated police department for them to do nothing.

Why 22 and 30? Cause of a hard dip in 2020?

No, they’re just the biggest glaring example and offenders.

Most of it is shitty scribbles. Not art. I like graffiti but not everything constitutes as such.

If thats true why isn’t it universally free at every school? But they definitely don’t fund both meals

Art is subjective, so I can’t really argue with you there. I’m am certainly no graffiti expert, but if you hate the scribbles I might encourage you to explore the art of handstyles. For instance, did you know Baltimore has it’s own style that’s completely unique? Here is a fun little video about Baltimore graff if you’re interested. It’s only like 4 minutes long.

Again, as this is completely subjective I can’t say you are wrong or right about how you feel about tagging. I love throws and hollows and pieces and all styles, but to me tagging is the purest form of graffiti. It’s how most people get started, just scribbling their name or some random word on a bathroom stall.

Understood. Buuuut... residents in baltimore city are paying almost twice the tax rate of any surrounding county. It's absolutely absurd that people are paying 5-9k a year + in city taxes to walk outside and see trash thrown all over their back alley by city refuse collection. Regardless of the city's staffing situation, this is a fucking joke.

I saw a police car with a recruitment bumper sticker in it that said, "thr biggest comeback story in america!" What a fucking joke.

Hey bud hook it up : I'll be a trash guy tomorrow gimme a job please

Adding salt to the wound, many of us pay an extra tax for "additional" services. Since 2008 we have seen less and less services but our tax keeps increasing. For some months I have not seen any street cleaning. The non-profits which are contracted to do the work, are no where to be found, and do not respond to emails.

The city started giving every student free lunch under the federal program in 2015 because it was easier than processing the applications for all the students, at the time the majority of students qualified based on their family income. They don’t collect family income information anymore, students in federal hill get the same access to free breakfast and lunch as students in Carrollton ridge.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/education/bs-md-ci-poverty-undercount-20180202-story.html

It’s not universally done because it doesn’t make sense to give federally funded free meals to students who aren’t needed. Baltimore mismanaged the federal funding.

It’s surreal to read complaints about mud in other neighborhoods, we have whole trees that fell in the road last year and still haven’t been removed.

..and fat sweet Pensions. Same with the educational system.

Yep, hard dip, relative to the rest of MD and rest of US. And then the ridiculously unsustainable looking budget trajectory. Ooof.

Look, nobody likes your vandalism. STOP.

Must be nice lol. It was more than a month for recycling without pickup this last time

I don’t vandalize things. I can still respect the art form. Sort of like how I don’t like you, but I can still have this respectful exchange.

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> the police union is the only union that is grifting in Baltimore city?

In Baltimore, only the Mosbys grift with the kind of entitlement FOP3 demonstrates.

Lol it goes to the half billion police budget.

Like most US cities, our tax dollars help fund fascism.

Into the pockets of politicians and a selection of their buddies.

Apply away. Dpw has tons of openings.

Everyone needs to be on Hopkins to pay more in their agreement with the city. That is why our taxes are higher. We subsidize a huge non-profit that drains from this city.

My block has a sign that says street sweeping is on...Tuesdays, I think?

In nine years I've never seen a street sweeper truck.

Maybe when you grow up and have a family or own anything you will understand where we're coming from.

"extra dollars"?

Hopkins is a massive provider of above-median-income paying jobs in the city. Baltimore would be more like Detroit without it

Don't forget about the 3.2% income tax as well!

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We don't have tax dollar street cleaning in Fells. The businesses pay the Waterfront Partnership to get the main streets, which they do in these smaller golf cart sized vacuum equipped vehicles. However, I've seen neighbors ask for and receive assistance from those guys for residential spaces. They are pretty great. Personally, I clean my own street gutters a few times a year.

Great example of why more gentrification is needed. We need more high income individuals so there are more resources to provide state benefits.

Oh buddy. This is quite an assumption.

Footing what bill exactly? Are you talking about TIFs? Those cost the city nothing. The taxes collected are used to pay back bonds, but 9 times out of 10, a TIF site wouldn't have been producing any tax revenue anyway.

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Silver lining is that other American cities have taken a greater downward turn since 2020. Baltimore, by comparison, isn't as much of an outlier as we once were.

It's going to the ghost kids in schools and to the boxing rings for people to settle their beef.

Doesn't make sense. There is no way the average per capita income of a Marylander increased $20k in one year.

Per this data, Baltimore per capita income is higher than the US in 2022:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PCPI24510

People come and pick up my trash and recycling every week.

My poop disappears when I flush it.

I am able to park my car on a public street 365 days a year.

I get drinkable water when I turn on the tap.

I take frequent walks through Druid Hill park, Jones Falls Trail, Stony Run.

I have trees planted on my street.

I ASSUME I'd experience more crime if there was no police force.

I get all that for about $4000 a year.

I don't wonder where my tax dollars are going. Sometimes I wonder just how much they could charge me before I'd leave.

Doesn’t matter. They are also a huge real state company that pours money back into their own coffers. My “above-median-Income paying job” also has to pay more property taxes because they won’t pay their share. Other companies like Under Armour pay taxes and so should they.

It's almost always a combination of both.

Lack of oversight and proper accountability measures breeds corruption and incompetence in equal measure.

Agreed!

In brewer's hill I'm pleased new water mains and paving of all streets is getting done or is complete (but this is the first time in ten years I feel like my tax dollars are benefitting me greatly)

Not just a Hopkins issue. IIRC Baltimore City is "subsidizing" the costs of County water (City provides the county with water and they do NOT pay what we pay).

Understaffing, issues with getting materials, vendors who don't meet promised performance, inability to hire certain vendors because our streets and alleyways are so narrow (we can't just have any garbage or recycling collection b/c of this). It's a confluence of issues.

Does it suck? Yes. Do I as a resident feel I could probably budget better? Maybe. Do I want to go through the City budget line by line to figure out what gets the money and what doesn't? Nope. I don't have time for that. I vote for people that I hope will do as indicated/promised.

What’s this ridiculous deal with water?

Your tax dollars have always gone next to nowhere that does any good for you. Do you actually look at your paycheck and really think about how much money you’re giving to the government for them to give you NOTHING? My husband makes about $22/hr, and in turn has about $1600 taken out in taxes every month. SIXTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS. 2 rent payments. Per month. An apartment will literally require you make 3x rent for month, meanwhile your paycheck is taking 2 of those. And what do we get for it? Roads are shit, schools are shit, public programs are shit, healthcare is not provided, I could go on & on. Because when you really consider that the insane amount of money which you work hard for is going straight into what might as well be the trash, it should make us all very angry. At this point though, Americans are truly so used to being exploited that it is normal and expected, and most of them defend it, saying that it pays for our country to work! Lmao, I think we all need to wake up and really demand that our hard work be for US to succeed. Not to continually provide tax breaks, salary increases, & military/police budgets. Paying thousands of dollars in taxes, ANYONE should have access to resources that allow them to live a functional, high quality of life, which for some reason is laughable to a lot of people. It’s really pathetic. What are we really paying for?

Ahhh when the price of labor goes up it cost more.... It's not that complicated.

Not quite

https://boondoggle.substack.com/p/what-you-dont-know-cant-tif-you

https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/op-ed/bs-ed-op-0516-tifs-baltimore-20220513-2sd7a7o4ungvzer66yucucd4yy-story.html

I can't access the substack article.

I agree with the commentary in The Sun, but the solution isn't to do away with TIFs, it's to lower the property tax rate so TIFs aren't required. I agree with that wholeheartedly. The tax rate is prohibitive to development.

But my point still stands - the City isn't "footing the bill". In theory they would if there was a default, but that hasn't happened. The TIFs have worked as planned, at least in a strict financial sense.

largest private employer in the state. baltimore would be nothing without hopkins. you don’t know how real life works

An interesting comparison is to look at # police per square mile. We actually rank low. The lack of population density in Baltimore skews the $ per capita number. But relatively speaking, the BPD has to cover a huge area and we need a lot of money and officers to do it.

The deal was established in 1972 and hasn't been updated since. I'm sure it made sense then when the county population was 240K less and far fewer communities were then serviced by the water/sewer system. It's time to revamp the deal though... which seems like it may be starting soon: https://www.baltimorecountymd.gov/county-news/2023/01/31/baltimore-county-and-baltimore-city-leaders-announce-landmark-legislation-to-create-regional-water-governance-task-force

Part of it is that there's a focus on sexy progressive initiatives rather than making basic services more efficient.

I'm a liberal, but believe redressing wealth inequality, etc. is the responsibility of the state and especially federal governments. Local governments can't do much about it. Their job is to address basic services and make an environment that's conducive to investors, including you and me.

If your block is anything like ours, you'll see the parking enforcement tickets going on windshields whether or not you see the street sweepers.

On my street we get the sweeper coming through twice a week (a different side of the street each time) and recycling every two weeks.

My understanding is that the recycling situation is a staffing issue and that the street sweepers will just skip your block if there are too many cars, because what's the point...

As for BPD, it seems our tax dollars go to clocking ridiculously high overtime for simply existing in uniform.

>That is why our taxes are higher.

LOL. That is not why our taxes are higher. How ridiculous.

The two are not mutually exclusive and employment taxes are not property taxes; Hopkins, as an institution, does pay above-median income jobs and they do not shoulder their share of the infrastructure resources they consume. I'd say maybe a third of my neighbors work for Hopkins at the Medical Campus about 4 blocks away. And yes, some of them do make good money. Those are the same people who can detail exactly how Hopkins consumes massive amounts of city resources through extensive real estate holdings while not contributing their share of that that tax base. It's true of most non-profits with large real-estate holdings. Having employees is not some get-out-of-Tax-free card.

This part!!!

Read a book.

Buy a clue

You know what’s art? The decades of study and the long hours poring and over design plans and picking materials and building something beautiful and utilitarian like the beautiful old historical library on St Paul or any of the myriad pieces of architecture and old brick in this city. And the labor working class people put into trying to make their homes nice… the people around the corner had someone spray paint ACAB on the side of their fucking house. They aren’t COPS! They aren’t government officials. They’re a retired couple! Now they have to go scrub fucking paint off their bricks?! Graffiti is trash when it destroys homes, public places and neighborhoods. Stop trying to be so fucking edgy. This city looks like shit.

you are correct, having employees is not a get out of tax card. however, being the premier medical institution on planet earth, certainly is. the revenue, legitimacy, and publicity that hopkins generates for baltimore is one of the few reasons this city hasn’t completely collapsed. reddits collective burning hatred for hopkins, and to an extent, big conglomerates like atlas restaurants is nothing more than NIMBY peacocking. without these necessary “evils” this city we all love would be inhabitable

My block is nothing like yours, then, fortunately.

>having employees is not a get out of tax card. however, being the premier medical institution on planet earth, certainly is.

No, it's not.

And claiming that the baseline expectation that everyone pay their fair share is "burning hatred" is dishonest. Especially to me, considering I do live with Hopkins - and many of their employees - in MBY. So spare me that bullshit.

yeah good for you all then. Unfortunately my neighbors get the tickets but not the benefits of the sweepers.

Dude, you have to calm down. I didn’t spray paint anything on your house or whatever. I’m just here trying to defend the artistic merits of graffiti. Also, no “edge” intended. These are my honest opinions.

You do know that different types of art exist, correct? I can certainly appreciate all the lovely architecture you described while also appreciating the art applied to the exterior of said architecture. The only thing that differentiates a tag on a wall from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is your opinion. Are you mad at the hunter gatherers who drew on the sides of caves because they fucked up the sacred wall of that millennia old cave? Of course not. But how is that different than a tag on a wall? Just someone leaving their mark. One is just old you you accept it.

We are in agreement on one thing, it is typically considered by most writers to be bad form to tag personal property. A bridge is one thing. Even an abandon building is usually considered fine. Houses, cars, nature, historic anything is considered toy shit. Again, I’m no expert, so take this with a grain of salt. I feel for your neighbors. Personally I’d let that ACAB shit ride, but I know such statements are not for everyone.

It should be illegal for that to happen and that councilwoman as well as her friends and whoever else is involved in that scheme should be properly dealt with

I just checked a few days ago and the site said there was no openings available.

I'll double check that in a bit and see what happens

Ok make the county residents pay for their share of the water. We know what the problem is clearly so it's a matter of actually doing something about it

To be fair, they aren't exactly broke and they have a large footprint in the city.

Both can take place and it would be fine for them.

hopkins pays its fair share 10 fold in other ways. perhaps your animosity is better directed towards the actual money drains that plague this city, not the institutions that are a net positive. or continue to hate on big businesses. that goes well. pandora and the likes will be laughing at you on their way out to NYC

https://publicworks.baltimorecity.gov/job-openings

Click on the other jobs link.

OK that absolves them of physically taking over much of the east side of the city, with an interest in taking over more, paying no taxes, being a large slumlord, killing off most possibility of development in the east side as no one wants to invest only to have them take over.

I agree, but dealt with by whom? It sounded like the people at the neighborhood meeting already reported it to DPW. Our own neighborhood group is defunct because of the village of Violetville group the councilwoman created. I don’t know what other type of representative would help. It highlights the need to have ethical people in elected positions, the wrong people do the wrong thing and it negatively impacts the entire area.

There has to be someone above her that has the authority to put an end to those "special deals". Not to mention she should be removed immediately for that foolishness as well.

What really kills me about this city is how easy it is to be unethical here. There aren't many checks and balances and that's something that's been going on for decades and needs to stop.

Council President Nick Mosby is above her, his ethics are definitely questionable. I called his office over two years ago when we first started seeing the results of all the preferential treatment. I never received a response. The grifters go all the way to the top. I know multiple areas of the neighborhood received help directly from the mayor’s office on specific issues. I believe this situation is one we have to vote our way out of. We just have to vote better, unless someone else has ideas.

So the price of labor is going up? I didn't realize that. I just thought there were vacancies, not that they couldn't afford to have a full staff.

Aha! Problem goes the the top. It's a shame that the laws don't close the gap and force accountability when it comes to people who are supposed to be working for the public regardless of who that person or persons may be

A lot of government turnaround because of political officials meddling. Look at Baltimore City DOT--practically all of the upper management quit within the last year and I'd imagine it's because weasels like Councilman Costello intervene and won't let them do their jobs. I imagine that is common across all departments. Beyond that, city technology is flawed and outdated. Even when neighborhoods were getting weekly recycling pick up, not *all* neighborhoods actually were. I agree, it's super frustrating that we pay such high property taxes for a city that doesn't seem to a) make progress and b) deliver the bare minimum. But, I'm not sure it's new. Look at Nick Mosby, he swindled money that could've gone to Public Works prior to entering office to instead make new positions for his office so his friends could get a nice paycheck.

People really need to look at the Mayor and City Council. If Mayor Scott had more of a backbone, he'd stop councilmembers from meddling or sternly deliver promises he made when he entered office. Instead its more of the same political gesturing over and over. I mean, the City Council was able to quite quickly work out new pension schedules for their benefit, but any other progress within the city's control seems to span political administrations...

There is only so much you can do as a local government that governs only 580k out of the over 2 million people in the metropolitan area, unfortunately.

If you don't perform basic services, then people will leave because of that - before you get into any redistribution.

The development process, as a whole, is a tax. Time has monetary value, as do interest payments on bank loans.

We should make that simpler along with the zoning code, but the neighborhood associations typically object to one thing or another, which, on its own wouldn't kill reform, but combined prevent a councilmanic majority from forming.

If you read this as “animosity” and “burning hatred” you’re either too dumb or too dishonest for this conversation.