... Or maybe there will be a property tax cut
The property tax rate cut Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon had intended to make and then said wasn't doable may happen after all, John Fritze reports today. The City Council is trying to put it back into the budget.
Though the council has limited power to alter the proposed $2.94 billion spending plan, several members said they will seek to cut millions in spending in the coming weeks so the city can afford to reduce its property tax rate by as much as 2 cents, the latest step in a five-year plan to reduce Baltimore's highest-in-the-state property tax rate.Political wrangling over the issue this year underscores the pressure city leaders are under to do something about Baltimore's property tax at a time when assessments have increased and the economy is slowing.
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Sheila Dixon is hopelessly out of touch. Baltimore City 's high taxes are the result of the cost of supporting the disfuctions and social ills of the city. On the very week that I was looking at homes in Baltimore City, someone close to me was a victim of a violent crime in broad daylight. Does she does not understand that people have choices, and that potential property owners are not obligated to subsidize the cost of addressing they city's social problems? They can choose to live elsewhere, and she and the rest of the city will have to cope with drugs and crime with less support from productive taxpayers. The Mayor's backtracking on even a modest tax reduction shows me that she is not interested in striking a balance. Maybe she thinks that potential homeowners are somehow obligated to be loyal to the city. The Mayor seems to think those homeowners should tolerate exhorbitant taxes. They won't. And I won't. That's not rocket science, but Ms. Dixon doesn't seem to get it.
Posted by: David | May 2, 2008 10:09 AM