A lopsided tax credit system in Baltimore has boosted wealthy city communities and taken a chunk out of city revenue over the past dozen years — with more budget losses expected by 2030, a new report says.
An analysis ordered by the city’s budget office and conducted by the accounting firm EY showed that years of tax breaks granted to developers have eaten into Baltimore’s annual property tax base at an ever-increasing rate. In 2019, tax breaks had cost the city nearly 7% of Baltimore’s real property tax revenue. By fiscal year 2022, that had grown to a total of $126.7 million, or about 14% of that revenue, the report found.
That means the city’s giveaways to developers for high-end projects mostly on the waterfront, downtown and areas like Locust Point, Canton and Mount Vernon have starved blighted communities around Baltimore long ignored for redevelopment, the report said.
And there’s no end in sight.
