Baltimore Democratic mayoral candidates clash on property taxes

Listen to this article

How to address Baltimore’s property taxes — the highest in Maryland — provided the starkest contrast between five of the top candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor of Baltimore.

At the Building Owners and Managers Association of Greater Baltimore’s mayoral candidate forum on real estate, in a conference room at the Hyatt Regency on Friday morning, candidates fielded questions on topics including flood-plain maps, the Royal Farms Arena and how to revitalize the city’s most troubled neighborhoods.

But the candidates’ approaches to property taxes showed perhaps their sharpest differences when it came to economic development issues.

Councilman Carl Stokes and Councilman Nick Mosby support the most aggressive plans to cut the property tax rate, currently $2.13 per $100 of assessed value for owner-occupied properties and $2.248 per $100 of assessed value on non-owner occupied properties. Those rates are twice as high as other jurisdictions.

Stokes’ economic development proposal calls for reducing the tax rate by 40 to 50 percent during a five- to eight-year period. Under his plan the rate reduction would be “earned” via an increase in the city’s revenue base.

“I’m not going to trade one fee for another. I’m going to lower the property tax, and I’m going to do it with a plan that I’ve laid out,” Carl Stokes said.

Mosby’s plan calls for dropping the tax rate for owner-occupied properties to $1.80 per $100 of assessed value and to $2.10 per $100 of assessed value for non-owner occupied properties. He argues the resulting revenue losses can be offset by making government more efficient and creating a solid waste enterprise fund.

“I have a responsible plan to reduce property taxes, not just for … owner-occupied buildings, but also for all buildings in the city of Baltimore, and we need it,” Mosby said. “Right now our biggest asset is our real estate.”

Businessman David Warnock took an opposite tack and said he would not promise to cut taxes. He argued, as he has in the past, that it’s irresponsible to promise cuts without having audited city government since the late Gov. William Donald Schaefer was mayor.

“I’m not going promise you a tax cut. But I will promise you this: There is no one in this race that’s more pro-business than me, there’s no one in this race who will take it more seriously than me, and it’s time we get a handle on our finances,” Warnock said.

Elizabeth Embry, chief of the criminal division for the Maryland Office of the Attorney General, and state Sen. Catherine Pugh took similar stances on tax cuts.

Both women said they would continue with the cuts pursued by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake but said those cuts, which have reduced property tax rates by 14 cents, are not enough.

Emrby said she wants to find new sources of revenue that will cut the city’s dependence on property and income taxes. She also touted her experience with state auditors, which she said will help in getting the city’s books in order to better understand what can be cut.

Pugh proposed creating a commission to study how to cut property taxes in the city. “You can’t just talk willy-nilly about bring the taxes down,” she said.

Former Mayor Sheila Dixon was scheduled to attend the forum but canceled at the last minute because of what her campaign called a personal emergency.

Last week Dixon’s campaign, in her economic development plan, labeled tax-cut proposals from other candidates “irresponsible.”

BOMA selected candidates to participate in the forum from the top six candidates in a Gonzales Research & Marketing Strategies poll released in January.