Politics & Government

Baltimore Bottle Tax Still in Holding Pattern

The bill doesn't have the votes to pass out of the Taxation, Finance and Economic Development Committee.

It looks like a proposed "bottle tax" increase may have taken up permanent residence in a Baltimore City Council committee.

A bill supported by Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake that would by 3 cents  to help raise $300 million for school construction is being held up in the City Council’s five member Taxation, Finance and Economic Development Committee.  The proposal would raise the bottle tax to a total of 5 cents.

Councilman Bill Henry, a member of the committee, said the bill doesn’t have the votes to pass. The bill requires three votes to move with a favorable recommendation and Henry, Councilman Carl Stokes and Councilman Warren Branch have all voiced opposition to the bill.

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Henry said that members of the committee may be open to passing the legislation if there was some compromise from the administration. Henry used the example of the mayor’s first attempt to pass a bottle tax when she asked for a 4-cent increase but compromised on getting a 2-cent tax instead.

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Henry said that he was "philosophically" opposed to a tax that puts small businesses in the city at a competitive disadvantage, but that he would be “open to conversation” on the tax because of the importance of school construction.

He also suggested a compromise that would eliminate the sunset clause on the existing 2-cent tax but direct all of those revenues to school construction.

Last night, following a rally by the Baltimore Education Coalition, Councilman Carl Stokes, chairman of the committee, said he was keeping the bill alive by not holding a vote because it doesn’t have the support to get out of committee.

"The committee—I’m keeping the bill alive—the committee doesn’t want it," Stokes said.

Councilman William Cole, a committee member who supports the bottle tax hike, said he hasn’t had a conversation with Stokes about giving the bill a vote, but planned to do so at the committee’s planned meeting this week.

Cole said that no steps have been discussed to use parlimentary proceedures, such as petitioning the bill out of committee, but reiterated the need to pass the tax increase to address the city’s school construction needs.

"Whatever is done, I’d like to do in cooperation with the chair," Cole said. "Because I don’t want to be in the position where we’re creating an adversarial process, but at the end of the day we need this to hit the full City Council."

A bill can be petitioned out of committee if eight members of the council agree to do so. The bill has the support of at least nine members of the city council.

Shannen Coleman Siciliano, a co-chairwoman of the Baltimore Education Committee, was still hopeful the bill will be able to find its way out of committee even if the bill is sent to the floor with an unfavorable recommendation. The council can still vote to pass legislation even with an unfavorable report from the committee. 

"We don’t understand why one person [Stokes] is allowing the democratic process to be held up," Siciliano.

But council members rarely take the step because it weakens the power of a committee chair. Setting the time for hearing and votes on bills is one of the few powers the council has in a system that favors the executive branch.

But opponents of the bottle tax, such as Sandy Vary, the owner and operator of , are hopeful the bill never gets a vote in committee.

"We're quite relieved that its stuck in committee or that it remians there, hopefully forever," Vary said.

Vary said that her employees come from the surrounding neighborhoods so they have an interest in improving city schools, but that she feels the city needs to stop wasting money on events such as the Grand Prix to pay for schools.

"It's very important to us to to see the city school system is improved, but my goodness where has all the money gone to to this point?" Vary asked.


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