The next mayor will help set priorities for growth and revitalization across Baltimore, and voters in next week’s primary election will decide which candidate has the preferred vision for tax policies that can drive development downtown and throughout neighborhoods.
Support from Baltimore’s mayor can determine the fate of projects that rely on public resources such as “tax-increment financing” – or TIFs; and “payment in lieu of taxes” proposals known as PILOTS. Those mechanisms have been at the heart of some of Baltimore’s most contentious projects in recent years.
TIF districts designate a specific area for redevelopment, with the financing of infrastructure and other elements backed by the expected future tax revenue increase. In essence, the city is betting that the long-term benefit will outweigh what it loses in general fund revenues over a set of years.
The Baltimore Peninsula, the project formerly known as Port Covington, secured $660 million in TIF financing, for instance, to fund all the infrastructure projects associated with the development. While some lauded the projects, others decried the use of TIFs to support the redevelopment. TIF financing schemes have also been used in Harbor Point, Harbor East, among others.
PILOTs are a mechanism in which the city can subsidize a development’s tax bill for a set of years. Both tools are used in Baltimore, and some critics contend that residents generally don’t benefit from these types of tax schemes, and developers with deep coffers don’t need the subsidy.
“One problem we have in the city is that we’ve not invested in our neighborhoods,” said businessman Bob Wallace, a Democratic candidate for mayor. “We’ve invested our tax assets into building these big shiny buildings around the water, but the people in neighborhoods don’t benefit from that.”
Wallace, who runs multiple technology and energy businesses, wants to direct investment to the city’s neighborhoods, by bringing businesses to those areas and focus infrastructure development on areas outside of downtown and the Inner Harbor.
The top contender to incumbent mayor Brandon Scott, former mayor Sheila Dixon, released a housing plan that includes directing TIFs to projects in “historically redlined neighborhoods.”
“A lot of times the TIF programs don’t come out as promised,” teacher Wendy Bozel, another Democratic candidate, said. “A lot of businesses aren’t paying your taxes and then that puts a tax burden on every one of us who live here in Baltimore City.”
Bozel said she’d rather see the city address property taxes more broadly, lowering them as proposed by groups such as Renew Baltimore. This relieve would relieve a burden on lower-income families, spur growth and be more equitable, Bozel contends.
Baltimore City property taxes are roughly double those in surrounding counties. Taxes collected in TIF districts do not go to the city’s general fund, but rather are used to pay back financing of the roads, water lines and other improvements serving the development projects.
There’s consensus among candidates that these financing tools are used more heavily in wealthier parts of the city to fund projects that would otherwise be able to secure the financing. Each mayoral candidate who spoke with Baltimore Fishbowl said they’d focus on development in neighborhoods across the city.
Vacant properties rehabbed through TIFs?
In December, the mayor made headlines for announcing a $3 billion plan to address vacant properties. The strategy included the creation of a $300 million non-contiguous TIF district to support developers in rehabbing the city’s more than 13,000 vacant properties.
“The big investment in TIF is going to be the vacants, because we know that the areas around town—uptown, not just downtown—deserve investment,” Scott told Baltimore Fishbowl.
The mayor’s plan to address vacant properties across Baltimore, includes directing $300 million in TIF-backed bonds to redevelop the vacants. He’s also working with the Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC) and Baltimoreans United In Leadership Development (BUILD) to spur investments.
But Bozel is worried that the tool would only serve to benefit developers and not those living in communities with vacant a number of properties. She’d rather focus on creating a rent-to-own initiative or work out her own dollar home program that taps aspiring homeowners to do their own renovations.
Dixon’s housing plan also includes utilizing TIFs to help spur redevelopment of the city’s vacants. The former mayor says Scott’s plan doesn’t go far enough.
Not an either/or
Dixon said she would evaluate current TIF and PILOT deals and make sure the city is collecting on them, she said, but if elected, she’d look to work with developers to use TIFs and PILOTs in neighborhoods.
“Let’s figure out where we can do the next one within neighborhoods and communities to attract amenities along with doing development in those areas,” she said.
Scott pushes back against charges of prioritizing one area of the city over another. If reelected, he’d continue to work with developers to support large projects in key areas in the city, but he’d also eye working with neighborhood and community groups on fulfilling their neighborhood plans.
“I renovated the CFG Bank Arena and Uplands. We did Lexington Market and Park Heights; it doesn’t have to be either-or,” Scott said. “But those areas outside of downtown deserve the same kind of focus and approach, which is why I’m proud to be the first mayor to say we’re going to use TIFs for vacants.”
For Scott, who directed $100 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan towards affordable housing projects said he’s delivering on a campaign promise from his last election to invest in neighborhoods and “treat neighborhoods like (in) East and West Baltimore, Park Heights—where I come from—the same way that many that came before me have treated everything that the water touches.”
Baltimore Fishbowl’s 2024 mayoral candidates issues coverage includes candidates with an active campaign website and who are receiving contributions into their campaign accounts. Scott, Dixon, Wallace and Bozel meet those criteria. Previous On The Issues coverage included former city, state and federal prosecutor Thiru Vignarajah, who dropped out of the race earlier this month.
Full mayoral campaign issues coverage:
Mayoral candidates on bicycle transportation
Mayoral candidates on supporting art
Mayoral candidates on the environment
Mayoral candidates on vacant properties
Mayoral candidates on recycling, trash collection and public works
Mayoral candidates on graffiti, dumping and cleanliness
Mayoral candidates on jobs and the economy
Mayoral candidates on large development projects and special tax treatment
Mayoral candidates on squeegee workers and youth recreation
Mayoral candidates on crime and public safety
