Some increased fines, fees and a few extra taxes are likely on the horizon for Baltimore City residents.
Released early Wednesday morning, Mayor Brandon Scott’s budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2026 tries to close an $85M budget gap without cutting services.
City finance officials say that for every dollar they plan to bring in as a result of increased fees and fines, they have trimmed two dollars in city operating costs elsewhere.
Scott’s budget proposal calls for increased fines for quality of life violations — think littering, parking violations, speeding and illegal dumping. While the mayor admits that he knows Baltimoreans feel the financial uncertainty of rising costs, he expressed no sympathy for the people on the other end of these increases.
“We tell you where the speed cameras are. So if you speed through a school zone, you will be fined, and we are going to raise those fines,” said Scott. “You should not be dumping illegally in our neighborhood. So if you do that, we are going to increase the fines on you.”
A comprehensive list of violations and exact fines is not yet determined; more details will be available closer to the fall but officials say increases will likely be close to 15%. In all, officials estimate that revenue could bring in $6.5M.
Taxi and rideshare users would also pay up more — from the current 25 cents per ride up to 38 cents — as well as a 20% increase on ambulance rides for non-Medicaid users. The ambulance increase is projected to bring an annual $5.5M while the rideshare increase is a bit more modest, that is projected to fill city coffers with an additional $1.5M.
There’s also a proposed increase on landfill tipping that is primarily designed to impact large haulers, like contractors, rather than individual residents. City officials propose doubling the landfill tipping fee to $135 per ton of waste up from the current $67.50 per ton which would bring in an estimated $8.9M in revenue. Those fees haven’t been touched since 1993, said city officials.
Noting rising bills on water and sewer delivery alongside hefty increases in Baltimore Gas and Electric bills, Council President Zeke Cohen said that increased fines would be “very challenging” for the City Council as it considers the budget.
“We’re not talking about a blanket increase across all city fines. What we’re talking about here is a targeted review of fines on the books that haven’t been adjusted for a long period of time and play a role in impacting the quality of life for our residents,” said Finance Director Laura Larsen.
The budget proposal does not include any changes to property taxes.
The City Council has until June 26th to adopt the budget and make amendments. The fiscal year begins July 1st and budget hearings before the City Council are expected to start in late May.
