Saturday, March 31, 2012


Regarding the recent hearing of the Charles Village Community Benefits District (CVCBD) on their "Recommended and Alternative Budgets for FY 2013", our community expressed concerns and here is another of the "Other voices from Charles Village", Joan Floyd, Benefits District homeowner:

SUPPLEMENTAL v. DUPLICATIVE SERVICES

THE CONCEPT
When they first authorized the Community Benefits District special taxing scheme for supplemental services, lawmakers prohibited the City of Baltimore from withholding regular services from the area where the special tax is collected and spent.  Lawmakers were aware that the City might be tempted to rely on Benefits District taxpayers to provide their own services.  Lawmakers required the City to sign a Baseline Agreement spelling out what regular services the City would continue to provide within the special taxing district. 
This mandate, if honored, should protect taxpayers from having to pay twice for the same municipal services. 
For example, let’s say the City puts these items in the Baseline Agreement: curbside trash pick-up, bulk trash pick-up, street sweeping, park cleaning, corner can collection and rat abatement. The City would not be allowed to refuse these services to any block within the special taxing district.  And residents of the area would not want the special tax used to pay for those services, since the City already provided them.      
THE PROBLEM
The CVCBD administrator admits there has been no Baseline Agreement with the City during his tenure of several years.  So there has been no legal protection against duplication of services.  During that time the CVCBD has adopted a program of using the surtax revenue almost exclusively for sanitation services that have “measurable” outcomes.  You can measure the number of trash bags collected from corner cans; you can measure the number of dumpsters filled with bulk trash; you can measure the weight of trash and debris swept from the curb.  
But who is measuring the amount that is duplicative?   A City crew attempts to empty a corner can but is told by a CVCBD crew to go away; the measurable amount collected by the CVCBD crew is duplicative.  A CVCBD crew sweeps a curb by hand a few hours before the City’s mechanical street sweeper arrives; the measurable amount collected by the CVCBD crew is duplicative.  
CVCBD services are required by law to be supplemental, not duplicative.
A SOLUTION 
This year, there is a call to replace duplicative CVCBD sanitation services with supplemental police patrols.  It’s a simple concept:  Let our regular taxes pay for regular sanitation services and regular police patrols.  Let the special tax pay for additional police officers to patrol the special taxing area.  That would truly be a supplemental service.  
-- Joan Floyd

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