A coalition of labor organizations, social justice groups and elected officials launched a campaign Tuesday to defeat two proposed charter amendments likely to appear on ballots this fall, calling them potentially “disastrous.” The group opposes two questions, one that would cut the size of the Baltimore City Council in half and another that would cap and step down the city’s property tax rate. The council-slashing measure has already been approved to appear on ballots in November. Organizers behind the tax reduction proposal have not yet submitted petitions to the Baltimore Board of Elections ahead of a late-summer deadline, but said Tuesday that more than 23,000 signatures have been collected. At least 10,000 signatures from qualified Baltimore voters are needed to place a question on the ballot. Standing outside a city firehouse in Southwest Baltimore on Tuesday, dozens said the tax cut proposal would lead to catastrophic cuts to city services including a reduction in fire companies, teacher layoffs, the closure of one-third of neighborhood libraries and the end of the Safe Streets violence prevention program. “This property tax reduction is dangerous,” said Matthew Coster, president of the fire union representing the city’s rank-and-file firefighters. “Is saving a few dollars on your property taxes worth your life or the life of your loved one?” The tax-reduction plan, proposed by a coalition of economists and former city officials calling themselves Renew Baltimore, calls for the city’s property tax rate to be cut from 2.248% to 1.2% over seven years. Christopher Meyer, a research analyst with the Maryland Center on Economic Policy, said Baltimore would need to gain 325,000 new residents within seven years to maintain existing tax revenue if the cut is enacted. Baltimore has been losing population for years. Census data shows a migration of people from historically Black neighborhoods relocating to areas with a higher cost of living. “That is a fantasy,” Meyer said Tuesday of the necessary population increase to keep tax revenue consistent. Ben Frederick, a real estate broker on the leadership team for Renew Baltimore, challenged that estimate in an interview with The Baltimore Sun. That doesn’t account for revenue from additional jobs created by businesses moving to the city nor revenue from increasing property values, he said. “It’s not devastating. It’s the opposite,” he said. “It’s sending a signal to people that Baltimore City is on the move and moving in the right direction.” Organizers face long odds in their effort to beat back the ballot questions. Dozens have graced city ballots in the last two decades, but only one has failed — a 2004 effort to lower the minimum age to become a council member. The opposition coalition, which includes about half the members of the City Council, is also opposing a proposal to slash the number of council members elected on a district-basis from 14 to eight. The council has 15 members including the council president, who is elected on a citywide basis. All 15 are currently Democrats. Councilman Zeke Cohen, the Democratic nominee for City Council president, argued Tuesday that the cut would create “chaos” in the city and rob city residents of the hands-on representation the council’s current size can afford. Cohen said he heard no residents calling for fewer members on the council as he campaigned earlier this year. “Our democracy is working. We’re not in a situation where folks get reelected and reelected and reelected, because if we were, I’m not standing here,” Cohen said, nodding to his defeat of incumbent Council President Nick Mosby last month. Cohen was one of several challengers who beat incumbents during the 2024 primary. Council Vice President Sharon Green Middleton is currently the longest-serving member. She has been on the council since 2007. “We had an election,” he said. “Some folks won and some folks lost. We should honor the will of the voters.” Councilmembers Middleton, James Torrence, Kristerfer Burnett, John Bullock and Odette Ramos attended Tuesday’s news conference, as well as Councilman-elect Mark Parker. Parker is running unopposed. The amendment to reduce the size of the council has been championed by the People for Elected Accountability & Civic Engagement, a group funded almost exclusively by David Smith, chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group and co-owner of The Baltimore Sun. Smith also principally funded a drive to place a successful term limit charter amendment on the ballot in 2022. A second petition drive that year which would have asked voters to institute recall elections failed to gather enough signatures. Numerous speakers at the rally Tuesday decried the ballot questions as born of “larger monied interests.” “This feels like there is dark money behind these ballot initiatives that are selling snake oil and calling it holy ointment,” said Kenya Campbell, president of the American Teachers Federation of Maryland. “We are supposed to believe that a nearly 50% cut in revenues for the city will be made up with a massive influx of new residents, and the city is expected to have ready for these new residents high-quality services without the resources to provide those services,” she said. “That doesn’t make sense.” Jovani Patterson, a spokesman for PEACE, said his group “looks forward to future public discourse” on its proposed charter amendment. Such civic engagement “is one of the keys to giving power back to the people,” he said. Last week, Mayor Brandon Scott spoke out against both proposed charter amendments saying they were aimed at “reducing Black political power.” Scott’s Chief of Staff Marvin James attended Tuesday’s news conference and organizers said the mayor is in support of their effort. “The mayor is looking to be able to lead the effort and to utilize him and his bully pulpit to lift up the message heard here today,” James said. Asked if the mayor can financially support the effort with his remaining campaign money, James said he did not have an answer yet, but the mayor will “utilize every tool that’s in his toolbox.” Most of the labor organizations in attendance Tuesday represent some portion of the city’s roughly 14,000 employees. Scott was backed by labor groups with endorsements and funding during his reelection campaign. Several labor groups also funded a political action committee that supported his campaign. Opposition organizers said they will mount a social media campaign and recruit canvassers to work polling places in the fall. A political action committee will be established, organizers said, but none offered an estimate Tuesday for what that the campaign might cost.
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