By Francesca Sund
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
A bill to create a community benefits district for Port Covington was introduced Monday during the Baltimore City Council meeting.
“Just by way of background, we have five other community benefits districts in the city right now,” said Councilman Eric Costello, who sponsored bill 19-0465. “Downtown Partnership, Waterfront Partnership, Midtown Community Benefits District, Charles Village Community Benefits District, and the South Baltimore Gateway Partnership on each of those instances.”
Special benefits districts enable residents, property owners and others in communities to pay to maintain roads, increase police protection and clean streets by placing a special tax on themselves.
Under the new bill, up to three classes of board memberships would be established within the Authority’s Board of Directors. Officials explained that this would allow the financial responsibilities to be mandated in conjunction with the operation of the district. A supplemental tax would be collected from the Authority too.
“With the exception of the South Baltimore Gateway Partnership, real property owners can add an additional surcharge on the real property bill,” Costello said, explaining “that money goes into a pot and is used to fund traditional things such as clean green public safety and marketing.”
The community of Port Covington could possibly benefit from the establishment different rates of supplemental taxes based on the separation of classes and subclasses of property. Officials said this may occur with the intended specifications of the boundaries within the district.
“[The] South Baltimore Gateway Partnership would bring the outlier because it is funded by casino impact funds,” Costello said. “So this would essentially create that community benefits district for the real property owners in Port Covington.”
With the district already growing, council members speculated that the bill would positively impact the area and residents living there.
The ordinance has been assigned to the Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, which will review and vote on it.
According to public records, Baltimore city’s first special benefits district began in 1992 when commercial property owners in the central business district created the Downtown Partnership. They agreed to tax themselves an additional 23 cents per $100 to fight crime and keep streets clean. Using that as its model, residents voted in 1994 to create a Charles Village Special Benefits District and tax themselves an additional 30 cents per $100.