Politics & Government

Council Members Want Details of Mayor's Proposals

Some member of the City Council who represent North Baltimore want to see more details of proposals from Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's State of the City Address.

Following Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s State of the City address on Monday, some City Council members who represent North Baltimore said they want to see the details of the mayor’s proposal.

Councilman Bill Henry, who represents neighborhoods such as Guilford and Radnor-Winston, said he wants to see the details of the mayor’s plan to reduce property taxes, which are currently $2.268 per $100 of assessed value, by 20 cents by 2020. The proposal would mean a $400 savings for the owner of a home valued at $200,000 in eight years.

“It sounds great,” Henry said.

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Henry was critical of some parts of the speech and said that some of the rhetoric was just that, and nothing more.

“There’s a point where she was talking about how we shouldn’t just accept the dysfunction of families. And that sounds really good to say, but how you turn that into government policy is tough,” he said.

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Councilman Carl Stokes, who represents Remington and parts of Charles Village, didn’t want to comment on individual aspects of the plan because he had not been able to review the speech beforehand.  He said he thought it was a good speech and that it was “well received by certain factions in the chambers today.”

“It will be interesting to see the meat on the all the programs that were mentioned, so that’s what we the council will be waiting to see,” Stokes said.

Councilman Nick Mosby, who represents parts of Hampden, said he was pleased with the mayor’s speech. Mosby is the lead sponsor of a City Council resolution to bring 10,000 families to Baltimore in 10 years. The mayor, in , mentioned the resolution, which mirrors a proposal Rawlings-Blake made in her inaugural address.

Mosby called the goal to bring that many new families to Baltimore a huge undertaking, but maintained it’s an exciting time for the city and expressed confidence that it’s a reachable goal.

“Now we all might have different ways up the mountain but I think that it’s important for us to have that common goal,” Mosby said.

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