Flexing their budgetary muscles more than it has in recent history, the Baltimore City Council passed their version of Mayor Brandon Scott’s $4.6B FY 2026 budget proposal on Monday night.
The budget passed 12-2 in favor. It goes on to Mayor Scott for signature before it is law.
Notably, the council authorized an additional $2M for the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant and Multicultural Affairs (MIMA) – up from its original proposal of just over $966,000– and an additional $112,000 for the Office of Inspector General to create an additional oversight role for her office.
Council President Zeke Cohen, overseeing his first budget cycle as council president, praised the council’s collaboration to “produce a budget that invests in Baltimoreans of every background age.”
There are no changes to income tax and the real property tax rate remains flat.
“This budget is the result of months of discussion, negotiation, and careful deliberation, and I want to thank the entire City Council for their partnership every step of the way,” said Mayor Scott in a statement. “In recent weeks, we’ve worked together to make sure this final budget reflects the current and future needs of our residents and takes into account the harmful and haphazard funding cuts we’re facing from this federal administration.”
Finance officials estimate the city will lose at least $6M in income tax over the next year due to federal workforce cuts by the Trump administration.
Baltimore City’s budget is created by the mayor’s finance department and is a reflection of the mayor’s financial agenda. The council gained expanded budgetary powers after city voters approved Question F in 2020, which allowed the council to move around line items in the general fund thereby allowing councilmembers to prioritize aspects of their agenda. Since that went into practice in 2023, the council has done little with that power.
“This council is ferocious, and this council fights hard, and I wanted to make sure the administration understood that we are their partner in this work, but sometimes partnership means there is going to be some disagreement and some back and forth,” said Cohen after the council passed their amended budget.
The passed budget proposal moves around $7.7M within the proposed line items of the general fund.
MIMA and the Inspector General, who gained and who lost?
MIMA is not a legal or direct service provider, however, the office does act as a connector to the city’s foreign-born community to those services. Additionally, the office helps with language assistance and increasingly, Know Your Rights workshops.
As the Trump administration ramps up deportations and slashes funding for legal aid for unaccompanied minor children, some council members demanded more funding for the office in an emotional budget hearing earlier this month.
That request was met by the mayor’s office. Budget Director Laura Larsen confirmed during an afternoon hearing that money was found through closing “various appropriations” and vacancies throughout the budget, rather than heavily taking from any one area in particular.
“The inclusion of funding for legal services and resources to support immigrant families is and must be a top priority for this council,” said Councilmember Mark Parker on Monday afternoon. Parker’s District One includes Highlandtown and many immigrant communities. “I'm glad to see that this amended budget reflects that for this council and this administration.”
In the newly passed council version of the budget, the Office of Inspector General, currently headed by Isabel Mercedes Cumming, would get funding for an additional investigative position. Cumming has said she would like a role dedicated entirely to investigations from the city’s Department of Public Works and the Department of Transportation. Cumming’s department has spent a year investigating working conditions at the DPW that lead more than a thousand injuries since 2019 and two deaths in 2024. The office has saved the city $17M in waste, fraud, and abuse in this past year, according to the inspector general.
That budget amendment, which came from Councilmember Odette Ramos, pulls the $112,000 out of the budget for the State’s Attorney. Ramos says those funds come from two positions in the office that have been vacant for over three years and would need to be reclassified before they could be hired.
“This is not a political statement, I very much value the work of the State's Attorney's Office,” said Ramos, during a special budget hearing. “The immediate need for the OIG is very important, and she does need that additional position.” Cumming said during June budgetary hearings that her office has nearly two dozen open investigations.
While Councilmembers Danielle McCray, Mark Conway, Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer and Antonio Glover voted against the amendment, a number of council people made sure to state their dedication to the work of both the state’s attorney and OIG.
While some money came out of the SAO’s budget for the OIG, the SAO still received an additional $280,000 in the version of the budget proposal passed by the council on Monday.
How will this hit residents’ wallets?
The mayor still needs to sign the budget before the fiscal year before anything is set in stone. However, that seems almost a sure guarantee given that the mayor wrote in a Monday night statement that he “looks forward” to signing the bill into law after calling it “equitable” and “balanced.”
With that in mind, here is what is on the horizon:
– Taxi and rideshares will go up: the city fee will increase by 13 cents, up from $0.25 to $0.38.
— There will be a 20% increase on ambulance rides for non-Medicaid users, bringing an estimated $5.5 M to city coffers.
— Landfill tipping fees will go up, a move that will most impact large haulers and contractors. That fee is proposed to double to $135 per ton of waste up from $67.50 per ton; city officials say that hasn’t been increased since 1993. That would bring in $8.9M in revenue.
It is the “worst” time to increase taxes and fees, said Schleifer, who voted against the budget.
“Especially on our most vulnerable populations, such as our older adults, who already have come before the city council and said they're choosing between their oxygen tanks and their utility bills,” said Schleifer after one of several city council hearings on Monday.
Also among the impacts for city residents are a still undecided and unannounced set of fines and fees. Those will be for quality-of-life issues, according to the mayor’s administration, like illegal dumping and speeding violations.
“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 when the budget was introduced in April. “You should not be dumping illegally in our neighborhood. So, if you do that, we are going to increase the fines on you.”
That comprehensive list should be available by the fall, say city officials but the increases are expected to bring in a total of $6.5M.
Cohen noted his disappointment that the mayor held firm on some fine and fee increases but also acknowledged the difficult fiscal situation ahead as cuts from the federal government trickle down.
“We are looking at some very challenging times. And so, the reality is that we need revenue in this city,” said the council president. He thanked Chairwoman Danielle McCray and the council members for fighting for those fee reductions.
The next fiscal year begins July 1, 2025.
