The average Baltimore resident may have only a vague idea how the Board of Estimates works, but you can bet that every senior city official does. In a nutshell, the five-member board has a big say over city spending — from preparing the annual budget to overseeing contracts and even getting the final say on the sale of city-owned property.

Maryland fell behind a majority of states on markers of childhood health, as kids experience higher rates of obesity or being overweight and tens of thousands of children still do not have health care, according to a report released Monday. The 2024 Kids Count Data Book, which is based on data from 2022, ranked Maryland 27th out of the 50 states for kids’ health. Maryland has been slowly falling in the rankings in recent years.

 

Elected officials, union groups and progressive activists launched a coordinated campaign Tuesday against a proposed measure to cut Baltimore’s property tax rate, calling themselves the “Baltimore City Is Not For Sale” coalition. The charter amendment they oppose, pushed by a group of politicos and economists, would gradually reduce Baltimore’s property tax rate each year through 2031. The movement organizes and fundraises under the moniker Renew Baltimore.

 

Four House and Senate committees are planning joint hearings into the death of a parole and probation agent in Montgomery County last month, the first agent killed in the line of duty. Leaders in both chambers said members of the House Appropriations and Judiciary committees will join with Senate Budget and Taxation and Judicial Proceedings to review issues related to the May 31 death of Agent Davis Martinez, including budget and staffing, and policies governing supervision of offenders on release.

 

The Montgomery County Board of Education on Tuesday unanimously approved a $3.32 billion fiscal year 2025 operating budget for county schools, which represents an increase of 4.6%, or $147.3 million, over current spending. The budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 is $30.5 million less than the amount that the school board originally requested from county officials, leaving Montgomery County Public Schools to make significant cuts to close the spending gap.

In Annapolis on Friday, Jamie Raskin was a rockstar. If he only got a raucous, welcoming round of cheers when he walked into a Democratic breakfast club meeting, it was because the appreciative audience was mostly silver and may have preferred not to stress their aging knees. But the spirit was there. “Our last great Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, didn’t know whether Americans could long survive half slave and half free,” said the congressman from Montgomery County, former state senator, constitutional scholar, ranking verbal pugilist on the powerful, fractious House Oversight Committee and unexpected TikTok sensation.

 

 

Vision To Learn, the free eye-exam and glasses program for youth ages 17 and under, is returning to Baltimore County Public Library for the sixth year. They’ll make a historic 27 stops at 17 branches around the county between June 18 and Aug. 19. Through the Vision To Learn program, children visit the libraries at the designated times for a routine, free eye exam. If a child is then determined to need glasses, a licensed optometrist provides further examination.

The City’s B&O Railroad Museum just got a big boost to its renovation plans. The Bank of America on Monday announced a $500,000 grant to support the museum’s plan to restore the South Car Works building in the museum. The restoration plan will reconfigure the museum’s layout, with the entrance to be at the South Car Works building, create community-accessible spaces, an amphitheater, and a street-facing cafe, among other changes.

 

 

Baltimore is on track to record fewer than 200 killings this year for just the fourth time in five decades. But gun violence is decreasing across most American cities. So how does Baltimore, which a White House official called the “greatest success story” in the country in terms of violence reduction, stack up? Well, according to a new report from the Center for American Progress, Baltimore’s drop in gun violence through the first half of May this year ranks second among the 50 largest U.S. cities when compared to the same period in 2023. Philadelphia is the highest. Detroit is third.

Today, a new transit task force will convene for the first time, aiming to create a sustainable funding model for public transportation in the Washington region and a unified vision for the future. The task force, DMVMoves, is a good start, but regional leaders must think bigger, starting with restructuring WMATA and other transit agencies.