Baltimore County is paying $3 million out of pocket to Baltimore City to resolve a long-running tiff over unpaid water bills — a fraction of the $22 million Baltimore’s Department of Public Works billed the county in 2018 to recover years of undercharged water service.
Per the resolution letter, dated July 8, the county will also pay the city $2.1 million to reimburse the public works department for water delivery unpaid by county ratepayers in the last two financial years.
The settlement totaled $9 million, which the city said made up the shortfall of undercharges from budget years 2014 and 2018. But much of it was relinquished by the city, which owed the county for other expenses.
About $3.9 million was shaved off Baltimore’s payment to reimburse the county for money it provided during the COVID pandemic to counter staff shortages in the city’s public works department and to cover “settlement payments” Baltimore owed the county for water service in the budget years that ended in 2019 and 2022.
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