In what may be an emerging trend, the city of Baltimore is considering removing some of the tax exemption of nonprofits, as the Baltimore Sun reports.
An excerpt.
“Citing numerous examples of waste and mismanagement, a citizens group appointed to analyze city services recommended that Baltimore study privatizing trash collection, create a program to quickly dispose of vacant houses and consider extracting property taxes from nonprofits such as hospitals and schools.
“The 150-member transition committee, selected by Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake to advise her as she took the reins of city government, blasts the Department of Housing and Community Development in particular, saying it "appears to lack a clear and coherent vision for revitalizing ... neighborhoods."
“Additionally, it criticizes the department's management of the Head Start program and charges that the department sits on funding for development projects, creating "significant delays."
“The committee also levied harsh words at the Department of Recreation and Parks, condemning it as "crippled and without direction," and deploring a "lack of transparency" in the agency's capital budget.
“The members of the transition team, appointed shortly before Rawlings-Blake took office Feb. 4, spent weeks meeting with agency heads and employees to draft their recommendations.
“Their analysis exposes numerous examples of redundancy, including one city-owned building shared by four government-sponsored programs, each of which uses a different cleaning service.
“The report comes as Rawlings-Blake prepares to present a dire preliminary budget Wednesday that includes profound cuts to city services to make up for a $121 million deficit.
"It's a critical time for me to have independent advice from community and business leaders," Rawlings-Blake said.
“The mayor's budget includes several of the transition team's recommendations, according to those who have been briefed on it.
“The report suggests numerous ways for the city to raise revenue, including a tax on bottles and other containers, raising hotel taxes and levying property taxes on nonprofits.”
About
- David H. Lukenbill
- I am a California native, married, we have one daughter and live close to the American River with two cats and all the wild critters we can feed. I am a management consultant to nonprofit organizations and have an Associates of Arts degree in Administration of Justice from Sacramento City College, a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Behavior from the University of San Francisco and a Master of Public Administration degree, also from the University of San Francisco.