Commentary

A lot of mail likely lands on Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott’s desk on a daily basis, but there was one recent letter that had us intrigued; it was sent by seven Republican members of the Maryland House of Delegates. As the nonprofit news site Maryland Matters reported, none of the signers actually live in Baltimore, and at least two of whom — Mark N. Fisher and Matt Morgan — live quite far away, in Calvert and St. Mary’s counties respectively, in Southern Maryland.

Last Thursday, the great tax hike battle of 2023 came to its dramatic conclusion as the county council raised property taxes by 4.7 percent. That followed the announcement of a large increase in impact taxes and the council’s vote to raise recordation taxes. The county has not substantially raised this many taxes at the same time since 2003. And there could be more next year.

Growing up, I loved to dance and took every opportunity to move my body, no matter the beat. Something about the structure of a choreographed dance gave me immense calm; I loved knowing that if I performed a pirouette and followed it up with a plié I would create something beautiful. I still love to dance but, six years ago at 33-years-old, noticing a waning capacity to move my body and take in air, I encountered what would be my most challenging routine yet: stage IV lung cancer.

It was billed as a town hall meeting on youth violence. But more than that, it was a transformative moment for two of Baltimore’s leading media organizations. Like the eclectic group of people — victims, parents, educators, community activists, cops and politicians — who were invited as panelists and audience members, The Baltimore Banner and WJZ-TV were drawn to the University of Baltimore’s mid-Belvedere campus by these chilling statistics: Seventy-three people 19 years old or younger had been shot in Baltimore by the first week of May — 19 of them fatally.

Both softened and matured by age and experience, the young men I knew while in middle school in Baltimore — during the start of Carmelo Anthony’s NBA career — appeared to be emotional (at least on Instagram) on the day “Melo,” as most of us affectionately call the former power forward, announced his retirement Monday. It was a warm late-May day, nearing 80 degrees in Baltimore.

Andy Harris, the anesthesiologist and Maryland congressman who voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act and who decried masking and vaccination mandates during the pandemic, now wants to save children in low-income households from sugary soft drinks. Harris, the seven-term Republican who chairs a House agriculture subcommittee, thinks people enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) should not be allowed to use food stamps to buy sugar-sweetened beverages.

The County Council’s Planning, Housing and Parks (PHP) Committee recently declined to fund the Office of the People’s Counsel, which operated between 1999 and 2008 but has remained unfunded since then. County Executive Elrich’s FY23 and FY24 budgets proposed refunding the agency, which represents the public interest (but not parties) in land use proceedings and provides technical assistance to residents.

The Biden administration is experimenting with new border policies, and asylum-seeking families headed to Baltimore are about to serve as its test subjects. This month, the administration began implementing a range of sweeping new policies at the Southern border. The centerpiece of the new approach is an asylum ban that blocks most migrants from accessing asylum if they traveled through a third country without seeking protection there.