Assembly passes bill to avoid $300M loss to Baltimore schools stemming from city's tax deals
The Maryland General Assembly passed a bill that is expected to save Baltimore’s public schools from losing more than $300 million due to special tax deals awarded to developments that make the city appear more prosperous than it really is.
The legislation — sponsored by Del. Maggie McIntosh and Sen. Bill Ferguson, both Baltimore Democrats — applies to certain tax deals awarded to developments across Maryland, but will have the biggest effect in Baltimore, which has authorized one of the largest such deals in the nation on its southern peninsula in Port Covington.
The legislation indefinitely extends protections for Baltimore schools and other districts from the negative impact of developments subsidized by tax-increment-financing deals, known as TIFs. HIgh-end developments built using TIFs make the city look artificially richer on paper, resulting in a loss of school funding.
Under such deals, valuable Baltimore properties pay little or no taxes to the city’s general fund — which can be used for schools — and instead pump the money into paying off bonds used to the subsidize the development. The projects improve the economy, which causes the state formula to deliver less school aid. But the projects don’t contribute enough tax revenue to replace the lost funding.
Read more: http://www.capitalgazette.com/bs-md-ci-school-tif-money-20180327-story.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
Ain’t they great? 
So the state is on the hook to cover the tax shortfall, so that the developer can pocket more cash. 