Thank you for visiting the balanced budget application. We are no longer accepting feedback for the FY 13 budget planning year. Your comments and feedback will continue to be monitored. Please continue to check our site to share feedback on upcoming budget cycles.
This Budget Exercise is for illustrative purposes only and individual budget options are not necessarily under consideration by the Rawlings-Blake administration.
Instructions
For this exercise, you will have the opportunity to advise the Mayor on how to address the City’s current budget shortfall. The options available for selection below are grouped into three categories: spending cuts, revenue enhancements and spending increases. The selection of spending cuts and revenue enhancements will reduce the shortfall, while selecting spending increases will increase the shortfall. Read the instructions below and see if you can balance Baltimore City’s budget. Do you have additional ideas about how to balance the budget? Please share those in the comment box at the bottom of the page after you have reviewed all of the options included here.
- Read each option carefully and click the boxes next to the options you feel would best help close the budget gap. It helps to quickly review all of the options before you start clicking boxes.
- As you make your selections, the remaining balance of the budget shortfall will be instantly tallied to help you keep track of your progress.
- If you wish to unselect a previously selected option, simply click the item and it will be removed from your list of selections.
- Once you have made all of your selections and completed the exercise, even if you were unable to successfully balance the budget, click the “Submit Your Budget” button.
- If you have budget balancing ideas that are not among the options listed, please share them by using the text box at the bottom of the page.
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1. Increase co-pays and deductibles in retiree health insurance and prescription drug plans, bringing them more in line with neighboring counties.
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$6m
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2. Increase the portion of health insurance premiums paid by employees from 10–20% to 20–30%, depending on the plan they choose.
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$7m
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3. Freeze pay for all but the lowest paid employees in Fiscal Year (FY) 2013. Pay was frozen for all employees in FY 2011. In FY 2012, all but the highest paid employees received a 2% cost-of-living increase.
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$9m
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4. Continue the current furlough plan, which requires employees to take between two and five unpaid days off, depending on their salary.
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$8.5m
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5. Charge employees a premium cost for vision & dental care.
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$2m
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6. Freeze police hiring in FY 2013. This would mean 250 fewer hires than planned and leave the police force nearly 10% below authorized strength. This action would reduce police presence in neighborhoods and have a severe impact on the City’s crime fighting efforts.
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$13m
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7. Eliminate the Police marine unit and rely on the Fire Department, State DNR and US Coast Guard to respond to emergencies on the water.
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$1m
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8. Eliminate the Police mounted horse unit. The mounted unit is used for crowd control, riot response, and ceremonial appearances.
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$500k
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9. Permanently close the five least busy fire companies. The City is already operating rotating closures of three companies, down from 4 in FY 2010. Permanent closures could be made so as to minimize the impact on response times, but response times would suffer.
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$4m
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10. Reduce street light maintenance and repair. Street lighting experienced a cut of $2.5 million in FY 2011. Further reductions in maintenance could create a large backlog of repair jobs that significantly reduce the quality of city lighting.
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$2m
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11. Close the five least busy libraries and reduce hours at other branches. There are currently 22 library locations, so shutting down 5 will reduce access in the affected neighborhoods. Discontinuing services at lower-use locations permits the City to maintain better hours at other locations and buy books and materials for the smaller network.
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$5m
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12. Reduce or eliminate grants to the City’s art museums and symphony orchestra, requiring them to charge (more) for services, raise more outside funds, or cut back the programs they offer.
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$2.5m
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13. Reduce graffiti removal and seek community volunteers to remove graffiti in public places. There are currently 19 City positions responsible for graffiti removal.
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$500k
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14. Eliminate business district cleaning outside of downtown and rely on merchants associations to pay for the services.
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$1.5m
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15. Reduce boarding and cleaning of vacant and abandoned properties. Vacant properties become locations for pests and transient populations if left unclean and unattended, affecting nearby properties. They can also become locations for illegal dumping.
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$1m
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16. Eliminate special traffic enforcement officers. This will increase police overtime pay for emergency situations and special events.
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$500k
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17. Reduce street repair and resurfacing. This would reduce the number of lane miles resurfaced by in house crews and lengthen response times for pothole repairs.
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$3.5m
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18. Reduce trash collection and ballfield and playground maintenance in City parks. Regular maintenance would continue only for facilities programmed by the Baltimore City Recreation and Parks Department.
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$1.5m
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19. Close neighborhood swimming pools and operate only the six large park pools. In Fiscal Year 2011, 60,000 City residents used these facilities, or about 10% of the population. The park pools have much higher use rates than the neighborhood pools.
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$1m
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20. Reduce funding for after-school and sports programs for youth.
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$3.5m
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21. Turn over responsibility for the maintenance and upkeep of pocket parks to community organizations. Pocket parks are smaller neighborhood parks that require less maintenance than the six major parks throughout the city.
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$500k
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22. Reduce 311 call center hours. Call Centers currently operate 16 hours a day. The new schedule would be ten hours a day Monday thru Friday and eight hours a day on the weekends, with the 311 service also offered online.
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$500k
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23. Turn off the City cable television channel.
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$500k
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24. Reduce custodial services in City buildings and leave more building maintenance as the responsibility of employees (throwing away trash in common receptacles, shutting off lights, etc.).
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$500k
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25. Discontinue support for programs to nurture small and emerging businesses.
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$1m
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26. Cut agency administrative budgets by 10%. This would impact fiscal, human resources, information technology and other functions that support front-line services.
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$4m
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27. Reduce funding for the conduct of elections. Doing so will likely reduce polling sites and lead to longer lines during elections.
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$1m
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28. Increase the property tax rate by two cents per $100. The current rate in Baltimore is $2.268 per $100, the highest in the State of Maryland and more than double neighboring Baltimore County.
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$7m
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29. Introduce a tax on billboards. There is currently no tax on billboard advertising in the City.
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$1m
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30. Introduce a five cent tax on plastic grocery bags, with exemptions for WIC and food stamp recipients. The tax would discourage the use of environmentally unfriendly plastic bags.
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$1m
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31. Charge $1 to ride the Charm City Circulator bus, which is currently free. The Charm City Circulator provides free access to downtown and certain neighborhoods for tourists and City residents.
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$1m
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32. Charge residents a stormwater fee based on property size to pay for projects that help the City meet federal clean water mandates.
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$6m
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33. Increase the Energy Tax by 25%. This tax appears on a City resident’s home energy bill, and was increased last year by 15%. The higher rate would cost the typical resident about $5 more a month and could promote energy conservation.
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$5m
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34. Suspend acceptance of new applications for property tax credits for newly constructed rehabilitated
dwelling units, historic preservation & enterprise zones. Existing credits would continue to be honored.
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$2.5m
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35. Allow for the selling of private sponsorships and advertisements at public buildings and parks.
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$1.5m
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36. Eliminate rotating fire company closures. The current budget temporarily closes three fire companies at a time on a rotating basis.
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$4m
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37. Double the funding for after-school programs.
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$5m
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38. Fully fund prosecutor positions in the State Attorney’s office. Positions have been frozen for three years.
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$1m
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39. Increase the number of lane miles resurfaced.
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$2.5m
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40. Restore tree planting and maintenance.
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$1.5m
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41. Increase funding for economic development. Development activities include business retention and attraction, job creation, and enhancing neighborhood main streets.
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$1m
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42. Extend the City pool season to ten weeks. The current budget supports a six week season for most pools.
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$1m
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43. Reduce the property tax rate by two cents per $100.
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$7m
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