Mayor Scott passes Baltimore City fiscal year 2026 budget

CBS News

4 days ago

Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott signed the city's fiscal year 2026 budget Monday, the mayor's office announced.
The city said that for every dollar of revenue generation, the budget includes $2 of savings.
The budget includes $31.4 million to generate citywide savings, $13 million in savings for individual agency budgets without disruptions to city services, and $2 million in funding for the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs.
What's in the budget?
$216.4 million in federal grants is included in the FY2026 budget.
Investments in youth programs
The city is allocating $634.4 million to youth programs.
The YouthWorks program will be receiving funding to support 8,500 YouthWorks positions for the upcoming summer. Additional funding for the program is available through partnership with the Baltimore Children and Youth Fund.
Operating costs for three new recreation centers at Chick Webb, Parkview, and Gardenville are also covered in the budget.
The budget also includes $600,000 in recurring funding for programming at the city's recreation centers.
The B'more for Healthy Babies program will receive $1 million to provide services to more than 10,000 families annually.
Addressing public safety
$1.2 billion in funding will help address public safety.
The city will invest in the Group Violence Reduction Strategy, which Mayor Scott has credited with aiding the city in reaching historic drops in gun violence. The city said it plans to expand the program citywide.
Another goal of the budget is to reassign administrative tasks from sworn police officers to civilian roles. The city says doing this will yield $1.1 million in net savings.
An additional $1 million will go toward citywide traffic safety projects.
Neighborhood development
Baltimore City will invest $1.1 billion into making neighborhoods clean and healthy.
$5 million will be allocated to enhancing recycling and trash collection within the Department of Public Works.
$29.6 million from the opioid restitution fund will be used to combat the impacts of the opioid epidemic. The funding will be used to expand opioid response efforts within the health department, fund community organizations, and enhance EMS and homeless shelter operations.
$349.6 million will be allocated to equitable neighborhood development, including the Bmore Fast Initiative, which aims to improve the city's permitting process, the Vacants Initiative, and the city's new Mayor's Office of Art, Culture, and Entertainment.