State of the City: Mayor Rawlings-Blake calls for 22 percent reduction in property taxes over 10 years

In her State of the City address Monday, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake called for “requiring more city workers to contribute to their retirement fund, charging residents for trash collection, asking firefighters to work longer hours and cutting the city workforce by 10 percent over time.”

The address comes on the heels of a financial forecast commissioned by the city that predicted a budget shortfall of $745 million in Baltimore city in 10 years’ time. (A forecast that, according to the Baltimore Brew, stirred up “false reports of bankruptcy.”)
Enacting “bold reforms,” as the Sun article states, would be the mayor’s means of addressing the city’s 2.25 percent property tax rate,  the highest in Maryland.
From the Sun:

[T]he city could use the savings to raise employee salaries and cut property taxes by 22 percent — 50 cents per $100 of assessed value — over the next decade. Delivering her annual State of the City address, the mayor did not offer specifics of her proposals, but said she would introduce legislation in coming weeks and months. [more]

Read the full article at the Baltimore Sun.