Higher property taxes for Baltimore City’s slumlords:
This proposal takes a step forward tonight as Councilman Kraft proposes a resolution to ask the State to allow for split-level taxation. The bill is being read at 5PM tonight. If you’d like to show your support for the resolution, please come tonight’s City Council meeting. Kraft has asked for an immediate adoption of the resolution.
You may read the resolution here. (Link opens a PDF file, scroll to page 20).
This is the last item on tonight’s agenda, so if you can’t be there right at 5 pm, you would probably still be able to hear it.
You can read tonight’s agenda here.
UPDATE: The resolution has been adopted by the City Council!
December 10th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Actually I liked the idea presented on WYPR’s MidDay that the land’s value should be the same for an occupied house or unoccupied. That would effectively increase the property taxes right away on vacant properties. No need for a special regulatory framework to enforce the 2nd property rate.
December 10th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Paul, the idea isn’t to punish people who own a vacant house — the idea is to punish people who own vacant houses that have been vacant and derelict for a long time.
December 10th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
fingers crossed!
December 10th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Cross your toes as well — that seems to help. :)
December 10th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
[...] issue is hella important and has been dealt with ad blueintheface by the prolific and successful Baltimore Slumlord Watch. And let’s face it, with 30k abandoned properties, the city is probably foaming at the mouth [...]
December 11th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
I was tricked into renting a slumhouse (promises to ‘have it ready’ by the time I moved in were not realized.)
I didn’t understand the logic of being a landlord, as a business, and not only not caring if a tenant stayed or not-especially after such a hardsell to get tenants in-but also purposely pushing good tenants out.
Landlords pay less taxcs on their vacant properties?
December 12th, 2009 at 8:08 am
Hannah, they don’t pay less…but they do pay the same rates as law-abiding property owners. And that’s not fair to those who do the right thing, nor is it fair to the rest of the community when their homes and neighborhoods are negatively impacted by the blighted vacants on the block.
January 12th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
[...] property taxes for owners of abandoned nusiance homes. We wrote about the tax hike for slumlords here and here, if you need more information. If you need to find your legislator’s contact [...]
January 27th, 2010 at 4:55 pm
[...] can read our past postings about the tax rate proposal here and here. The second post also contains a link to a Baltimore Sun piece about the tax [...]
February 16th, 2010 at 9:44 am
[...] December 10 post [...]