Zero Tolerance For Open-Air Drug Markets August 2, 2007

Open-air drug markets have become far too common in Baltimore. Many people just accept them as a fact of life. Open-air drug markets create a sense of lawlessness and bring down the overall quality of life in a community. It is finally time for communities and the police to work together to make sure a sense of law and order is restored to every area of Baltimore. We need a zero tolerance policy toward open-air drug markets. In order to do this, police must stop and get out of their cars when they see an open-air drug market and community members must call 911 when they see an open-air drug market. Pretending they don’t exist will not make them go away. The police need to have more members of the warrant task force and have them
available to come to the scene of an open-air drug market 24 hours a day. We need to hire more police personnel to fill the over 100 vacancies we currently have on the force and we must pay Baltimore Police at the same level police are paid in the counties surrounding the city. As councilman, I would organize citizens on patrol walks and go door to door encouraging every neighbor to participate. I would take advantage of groups like the Guardian Angels who freely volunteer their time to patrol areas and go on citizens on patrol walks. I will work tirelessly trying to track down the owners of houses and commercial establishments that have drugs flowing in and out of them on a regular basis. I will encourage the creation of more police substations all over the community including in senior apartment buildings and schools to that our most vulnerable residents are protected.

Academically Strong and Safer Schools July 16, 2007

The Goal: Academically Strong and Safer Schools

The Problem: The Baltimore school budget is a staggering $1.2 billion a year. The state of Maryland is the biggest contributor to the budget. Despite this huge number many of our schools are literally falling apart and are unsafe. At the same time, up at City School headquarters on North Avenue there are some administrators who do very little but get paid exorbitant salaries. The school budget recently presented to the public makes little sense. It is filled with mathematical errors and to this day the public does not know the true amount of money that is actually going into the schools themselves. Who should we blame? How do we fix the problem? The School Board is a product of the State of Maryland. The Board is not elected nor does the Mayor have a say as to who is on the Board or who is in charge. Based on everything from Baltimore’s school leadership to the confusing budget balance sheet, it is clear that Baltimoreans need real accountability when it comes to our public schools.

The Solution: Before we can truly say that the school system is lacking in funds we need to properly account for the money. The mayor and City Council must refuse to approve the City’s portion of the school budget until the following takes place:

Baltimore’s elected officials know that the entire school budget is $1.2 billion a year. We must ask every school how much money they need to operate (including facility repairs, special needs, after school programs, salaries, etc.). After every school submits their desired operational budget we should add up each school’s proposed budget and subtract the total from $1.2 billion. What ever is left over is allocated to pay for the administration located at the North Avenue headquarters. If there is not enough to pay all of the administration then we identify which positions within the administration are unnecessary and we eliminate these positions. Right now it appears funding goes to the administration first and what ever is left over goes to fund our schools – where our children are supposed to be learning. This is a backward and wrong and only hurts our children. It may also be possible to move the City School administration out of its North Avenue headquarters and into a smaller building. This would allow Baltimore to sell all or part of the North Avenue complex to raise additional funds for our schools.

Currently there are empty spaces in some of our schools. At the same time, there are school safety worries. I believe some of the empty spaces in our more dangerous schools should be designated as police substations. Police use substations as a place to relax for a few minutes or to use the bathroom. Having Baltimore City Police foot traffic inside school buildings should add some order to otherwise disorderly schools.

I have been told by numerous principals that they are responsible for setting the tone at their schools. We need to establish a culture where good principals are rewarded at bad principals are replaced.

In the name of accountability, I support eliminating the City-State partnership because our children are falling through the cracks as a result. Either we need a majority-elected School Board or the Mayor must be given control over the Baltimore City schools.

Sell City Owned Vacant Properties July 16, 2007

The Goal: Sell City Owned Vacant Properties

The Problem: The city does not reveal how many vacant properties it owns. The vacant lots and buildings are horrible blights upon neighborhoods. They are used to store drugs, pile up trash, and conduct all sorts of illegal activity. The negative psychological effects on both young and old are immeasurable. Yet, we are living through a period during which there is great demand for real estate in Baltimore. There are many people who want to buy these properties and begin rehabilitations. At the same time, Baltimore needs new revenue sources. The property the city owns is perhaps the most valuable commodity Baltimore has that can be converted in to beneficial revenue. What are we waiting for?

The Solution: Baltimore needs to have a goal of converting empty city owned property in to at least $50,000,000 of Revenue by selling it to those who will improve the property by 2010. In order to do this the City must take the following two steps:

Step 1: The Baltimore Housing Department needs transparency now! It needs to create a Web site that lists every vacant property Baltimore owns and how much money Baltimore would require in order to sell it to private individuals/entities. This Web site needs to be the focus of a major marketing effort by the Housing Department. Once such information is made public, creative individuals and businesses can develop imaginative ways of turning the empty houses, lots, and commercial establishments into something other than vacant eyesores. Bids and proposals would be due 2 months after publication and decisions would be made a month after. For residential property, home owner-occupants would be favored over developers. Vacant lots bordering owner-occupied houses would be first offered to those bordering home owners for a minimum of $5000. There should also be a commercial section that favors those who want to bring jobs back to the city (light industry etc…). All construction must be completed 18 months from the purchase date (mega projects excluded). All purchasers must pay three years of property tax in advance. If 5,000 properties are sold for an average of $10,000 Baltimore will generate $50 million in revenue just from these sales. Future property tax revenue would also be enormous.

Step 2: The above process should not end until every vacant Baltimore property has been sold for at least the original listing price. Once the properties are back on the tax roles they will generate an incredible amount of property tax revenue that will allow the City to lower property taxes. With far fewer vacant properties, there will be far fewer places to dump trash, less opportunity to conduct illegal activity, and a drastic reduction in depressing eyesores.

Lower Property Taxes July 16, 2007

The Goal: Lower Property Taxes

The Problem: The property tax rate in Baltimore is currently $2.268 per $100 of the assessed value of the property. What does this mean in practical terms?

If an individual purchases a $200,000 rehab property in Baltimore’s Druid Heights neighborhood, he/she will end up paying $4,536 a year in property taxes to the City of Baltimore. Compare this to the situation in Baltimore County. In the County the property tax rate is $1.11 per $100 of the assessed value. In other words, if an individual purchases a $412,000 house located on a one acre lot in Reisterstown, he/she will end up paying $4,536 a year in property taxes to Baltimore County.

After completing the above math, it is clear why there is little, if any, financial incentive for a family to reside in Baltimore City over Baltimore County. The Baltimore City tax rate is so high that it makes it difficult for those on fixed incomes to afford to own any property in Baltimore City and the rate makes it nearly impossible for renters to qualify for home ownership in the City. Once a renter can afford a $250,000 house they will logically select Baltimore County as the site of their future home since the tax rate there is half that of Baltimore City.

The Solution: We need to have a goal of bringing down the property tax rate to under $2 per $100 of the assessed value of the property by the start of 2010. We should have an identical property tax rate to Baltimore County in 10 years. In order to accomplish this, we must create new revenue streams to make up lost revenue due to tax cuts. Ultimately, we must come up with solutions that do not punish Baltimore residents for choosing to reside in Baltimore City. Below are Adam Meister’s “7 Quick and Simple” revenue-generating plans. Please keep in mind that for every penny per $100 of the assessed value cut the city loses $2.5million:

Plan 1: Every year the state determines what the property tax rate of Baltimore City must be in order to generate the same amount of revenue as the year before. This is called the constant yield tax rate. Every year the Mayor and City Council approve a rate that is higher than this rate! We need to at the very least use the constant yield tax rate as our base. This simple step saves us 4 cents. We are down to $2.228

Plan 2: Commercial property in Baltimore is under-assessed. In Mount Vernon alone there are 100 properties that are under-assessed by at least $100,000 each. It has been said that commercial property underassessment is costing the City $20 million in property taxes each year. Taking a conservative approach, I say we can appeal enough commercial properties in Baltimore to generate $5million in revenue for the City. This will save us 2 cents. We are down to $2.208.

Plan 3: Currently Baltimore does not provide enough transparency in to the housing department for average residents to figure out how many vacant homes there are in Baltimore. Most experts aggress that there are over ten thousand privately owned vacant houses. These vacant homes create many problems for neighborhoods. Owners need to be financially responsible for the negative impact they have on communities. I propose a yearly $300 vacant house fee. This should generate enough money to lower the tax rate by a penny. We are down to $2.198.

Plan 4: In Baltimore, one must pay $18 if they wish to file an eviction notice. There are 150,000 eviction notices filed each year in Baltimore. This fee should be doubled. The additional $18 fee must not be passed on to tenants. This will generate enough money to lower the tax rate by a penny. We are down to $2.188.

Plan 5: The city owns around 10,000 vacant properties (including houses and empty lots). Almost every week a person asks me, “Why can’t I buy property from Baltimore?” Currently Baltimore has Project 5000 which is not an easy process to navigate or understand. Baltimore also has something called the “rolling bid process” that is part of Project 5000. The general public, the every day investor, and even the expert investor does not have time to deal with Baltimore’s baffling and inefficient way of disposing of property. Some of the properties Baltimore owns – like the parcels on Druid Lake Park Drive – are worth over $2 million. Most are worth more than $5,000. The city needs to create an online database of all the properties it owns and list values next to these properties. It should heavily promote this site to potential home owners and investors who want to create home owner opportunities. There should also be a commercial section that favors those who want to bring jobs back to the city (light industry etc.). Bids should be sent in to the City and home owner occupants should be favored on the residential side. All construction must be completed 18 months from the purchase date (mega projects excluded). All purchasers must pay three years of property tax in advance. If this process was started in January of 2008, by the start of 2010 at least $50 million could be generated if only half the city owned property had been sold. Once properties are no longer owned by the city they can be taxed by the city and properly accessed once they are complete.

Plan 6: Non-profits do not have to pay property taxes. Johns Hopkins owns $727 million worth of property. A home owner in Sandtown pays more in property taxes than Johns Hopkins does. Is this fair? Non-profits that own over $100 million worth of property should have to pay some property taxes.

Plan 7: There are some fun ways Baltimore can generate revenue. Bars in uninhabited areas (Powerplant Live, Sonar, Scores, the Side Bar, etc.) should be allowed to purchase new liquor licenses that allow them to stay open and serve alcohol until 4AM. Bars in residential areas should be allowed to purchase licenses (only with neighborhood approval) that allow them to stay open until 2:30 and 3AM. Neighborhood approval would be needed every 2 years to renew the licenses. Making Baltimore a more “night friendly” town, similar to D.C. and New York City, would attract new residents, new business, new conventions, and new hotels, while also increasing foot traffic and revenues at already existing businesses. The economic impact would be substantial.