Rawlings-Blake Proposes Bottle Tax Hike

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced her administration’s plan—which involves raising the city’s bottle tax to 5 cents—to increase the city’s contribution to the public school’s capital fund by $23 million.

“The city school system is challenged not only by the oldest school buildings in the state of Maryland, (but also) a local tax base that is insufficient to meet the current and future funding needs of the school system's construction and renovation plans,” Rawlings-Blake said.

Dr. Andres Alonso, Baltimore City Public Schools CEO, supported the mayor's proposal at the press conference announcing the plan Monday morning at an East Baltimore elementary school.

“I think it unfair to ask teachers and kids—[who] have, in some ways, much greater challenges than those in other jurisdictions—to learn in conditions that communicate to them that they’re somehow lesser in terms of the structure of our society,” Alonso said.   

The plan also includes:

• Planned contributions of $1.2 million, about 10 percent of the estimated revenue from the land lease for the proposed slots casino near the sports stadiums.
• $12 million from leveraging state funding through the “re-appropriation” of retiree health care costs. 
• The city will also maintain its annual bond contribution of about $17 million.

But the plan has critics including Councilman Carl Stokes who represents parts on North Baltimore.  Stokes is also the chairman of the T The legislation to raise the bottle tax from 2 cents to 5 cents must go through that committee.

Stokes said the proposal by the mayor addresses just one problem and creates only one new revenue stream. He said the mayor and the City Council need to address a more comprehensive solution for several needs facing the city.

Stokes said that he would like to discuss the city’s contribution to the schools operating budget but he also said the mayor and council need to consider the funding for recreation centers, summer jobs and extended-day services at schools.

“Why aren’t they on the table? The mayor made a promise that 55 recreation centers would remain open. I was at a public meeting where she said that, but that’s not going to happen now,” Stokes said.