Mayor Brandon Scott kept his cards close to the vest for months ahead of a much-anticipated vote on an ambitious new housing proposal, keeping quiet on whether he’d sign the bill package into law. While affordable-housing advocates paraded and picketed City Hall to drum up support, top officials in the Scott administration were raising red flags about the proposal’s scope. Baltimore could face a $1.8 billion budget shortfall over the next decade, and officials in the Department of Finance repeatedly warned that the city budget could hardly sustain another tax credit or risk stunting new development.
