Baltimore City Council approves FY27 budget

BALTIMORE (WBFF) — Baltimore City Council members passed the latest budget Wednesday, which includes funding for numerous community initiatives related to immigrant affairs, school safety, childcare resources, and City streets.

“I am proud of how this city council met the moment,” Baltimore City Council President Zeke Cohen said.

The FY 2027 budget includes an additional $1.6 million investment for the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs for legal and mental health services for immigrant families. It includes $500,000 to add more locks to internal doors in schools to promote school safety. The locks would be for non-classroom doors. The budget also includes funding for the Baltimore City Child Care Resource Center to support the City’s pre-kindergarten expansion efforts, as well as the re-establishment of the Family Resource Program.

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The budget also includes funding for local businesses, Main Streets, which is a program that revitalizes and reenergizes historic downtowns and neighborhood commercial districts, as well as funding for a crisis response system.

“We have to be able to meet whatever the need may be for someone who is experiencing crisis,” Cohen said. “That’s why I am so proud to be working closely with the administration on an upgrade and the development of a brand new system, and we’re proud to secure with the administration $5.4 million from the opioid restitution fund to begin that work.”

However, some aspects of the budget have received scrutiny, like the expansion of the Mayor’s Office. City Leaders argue the expansion is necessary to continue addressing community issues. However, during the budget process, Councilman Yitzy Schleifer was critical of it.

“We’re seeing a $4.5 million increase…16 new employees at the mayor’s office at a time when homeowners are struggling to make ends meet,” Schleifer said.

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Another big debate was over property tax relief. Homeowners will see an initial 1-penny reduction on July 1, 2026, and an additional 4 pennies next July, which will bring the rate to $1.99. That means owners of a $300,000 home will save about $30 on their property taxes, and owners of a $500,000 home will save about $50.

“There needs to be bigger property tax relief. What city officials are doing is not enough. Baltimore City has to become more competitive with surrounding jurisdictions and to bring people into the city. You can’t tinker around the edges when it comes to property taxes, people need real relief, and you have to entice people to come back into the city and to buy property,” said Taxpayer Advocate David Williams.

“We’re always going to fight for more property tax relief, and we always have to make sure that we are supporting our essential city services,” Cohen said. “The reality is that we’ve seen a lot of contracts go up in how much we’re paying for our workers.”