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ROCKVILLE, MD (October 3, 2024) - Earlier this week, Governor Moore and Baltimore elected officials celebrated the signing of a new executive order they claim will address the “vacancy problem” in the city.  The plan aims to subsidize the rebuilding of 5,000 vacant properties over five years.  Currently, it’s estimated that there are at least 13,000 abandoned structures and another 20,000 vacant lots in Baltimore.

Clearly, these officials mean well, and the entire state has a strong interest in reviving a city that was once its economic engine but has seen population losses for seven consecutive decades.  Good intentions alone will not be enough to reverse this steady decline, however.  Even if this plan meets its stated goal and rebuilds 1000 structures per year, these gains are likely to be offset by a continued exodus from the city, which has been losing residents at the rate of over 500 per month just since the 2020 census.

For many years, the Maryland Public Policy Institute has been warning city officials and residents about the dangers of a non-competitive – indeed, confiscatory – property tax rate.  This is a root cause of Baltimore’s long-running disinvestment crisis, fuels the flight of jobs and population, and is a barrier to its residents’ ability to flourish economically, thus contributing to a host of other social problems.

This summer, over 23,000 Baltimoreans signed a petition to end the crisis:  they sought to put an initiative on the ballot calling for a cap on the property tax rate at a more competitive level, phased in gradually over seven years.  Sadly, city officials fought the initiative in court and succeeded in getting it off the ballot in the coming election.  Reform advocates have vowed to fight on, but it would be nice if they didn’t have to.  City officials need to recognize that their approach – high taxes for the many, special tax breaks and subsidies for the few – is both unfair and ineffective.

“Governor Moore and Baltimore’s leaders are doubling down on a redevelopment strategy that has been failing for decades,” said Christopher Summers, president and chief executive officer of the Maryland Public Policy Institute.  “There’s never enough subsidy money to hold back the tide of disinvestment when the bulk of residents and businesses in the city face a non-competitive tax rate – more than double that in any other state jurisdiction.  This new initiative simply won’t have the broad benefits promised, and it continues to treat most city residents unfairly.  Baltimore's future can be bright, but achieving that vision requires a fair, competitive property tax rate for all its citizens.”
 

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  The Maryland Public Policy Institute is a nonpartisan public policy research and education organization that focuses on state policy issues. The Institute’s mission is to formulate and promote public policies at all levels of government based on principles of free enterprise, limited government, and civil society. Learn more at mdpolicy.org.