Maryland Public Policy Institute Questionnaire

The Maryland Public Policy Institute
QUESTIONNAIRE

Do you plan to cut Baltimore’s property tax rate? If so, how much and when?

Did you know that the bond leverage in Baltimore ties all future Baltimore tax revenue to servicing those bond deals for decades? Especially the school building bond a few years ago. Take a look at the wording of this deal and you see that all tax revenue---EVEN property taxes now have a lean by these bond deals. Knowing that and knowing a bond market collapse is coming soon/a FED tax rate hike coming soon---all of which will make Baltimore tax revenue liabilities soar with no lowering of taxes in sight---taxes will increase.

If a candidate does not explain all this to voters----that candidate does not have any intention of lowering taxes because----he/she will not be able to do so. Since all of the establishment candidates are tied to all Wall Street financial leverage and especially this school building bond---and since all of the establishment candidates support corporate subsidy and tax breaks that starve our Baltimore City government coffers----they are not being truthful in saying they will lower taxes.

I have as my platform and a long history of discussing public policy in Baltimore stated I will be the one who reviews all Wall Street financial deals including bond deals to assure they are written in the public interest. The school building bond was totally unnecessary as Baltimore has always had the revenue available to rebuild all its public schools---it simply re-appropriates these revenue sources to corporate and wealth projects. I will be reviewing all Enterprise Zone contracts to see they are in the public interest, that those connected to these deals are meeting their obligations, that revenue paid actually goes to where it was intended to go. Finally I will not enter any new corporate subsidy and tax agreements as we move emphasis to rebuilding Baltimore to our communities and infrastructure projects badly needed in all communities. All of this brings revenue out to our communities for development needs and provides the ability to actually lower taxes on homeowners and citizens.

Would you support selling some city-owned facilities (e.g., parking garages, hotel, etc.) to raise funds for other public purposes?

I do not want to sell REAL city-owned facilities like parking garages---I do not consider owning a hotel real city-owned assets and that will be re-purposed or sold whichever brings better value for our citizens. Baltimore has been starved of city services, institutional structures, and real estate such as parks and public meeting places. I will build out to each community Baltimore City agencies tied to providing services so communities will have access to a city employee for each agency right in their community. This brings voice in public policy, brings transparency in agency functions, and creates a vital tracking system for data collection and analysis over the long term for each agency that a citizen can see first-hand with public postings. I will end quasi-governmental status for agencies like Housing Authority, Parking Authority because that privatized status is where much of the fraud and corruption in the city lies. A government cannot enter contracts that create PROPRIETARY conditions of behind-closed-door policy development.

If you indeed intend to do all of the above---from question 1 and 2----rebuilding oversight and accountability there will be $1-2 billion in city revenue added to city budget annually all of which will go to communities, our public schools, and lowering tax burden.

Do you support expansion of charter schools or voucher programs to expand access to high-quality education for Baltimore’s poorer residents?

No, I actually will reverse this current education policy that seeks only to create a national corporate charter structure in Baltimore and not the local community charters that some citizens in Baltimore want. I am a Federal Equal Opportunity and Access candidate who will make sure all funding is distributed with equity to all public schools and that public charters meet the same terms that our public schools do. Vouchers do not provide or expand high-quality education for Baltimore’s poorest residents---they are only used to create conditions for families to have to send children out of communities to receive what should be available in all communities----access to high-quality education.

I will reverse the corporate structure in our public schools----from the testing/evaluation for teachers and students----Common Core----and the vocational ties to corporations in grades earlier than high school----9th grade. Once I rebuild the public structures for our public schools in each community if citizens in a community are still wanting a local, community charter I will be happy to work towards that goal.

How would you reform the city’s public housing authority to assure that embarrassing events like the recent “sex for repairs” scandal do not occur again?

Baltimore’s history in housing has been to allow communities to decline along with the public housing structure. They did that because a Master Plan developed in the 1980s----90s had Baltimore’s surrounding communities as global corporate campuses with global headquarters and global factories taking most of those communities allowed to decay. This is why all Federal low-income housing funds these few decades were re-appropriated to building corporate campuses and downtown affluent structures and is why the Housing Authority was created as a quasi-agency so as to make housing policy non-transparent. If you know the goal is to push or end public housing in Baltimore and move those citizens out of city center then you understand why all these negligence of property and residence has occurred for decades---not only these recent cases.

If a candidate cannot be open with this history they will not address concerns. I intend to continue dismantling and re-purposing much of the high-rise public housing because we all know concentrated poverty never worked. Instead I will include it into the mixed-income formulas for each community rebuilding as part of the affordable housing goals. Since I intend to build all Baltimore City agencies out to each community, there will be an office for housing issues right in the community with an employee to receive concerns and complaints, process and provide transparency in the settlement of these complaints. Since I will build oversight and accountability WITH TEETH----there will be no ability for such abuses of public residents as occurred with sex for repair.

Would you support an increase in the city’s minimum wage to a level higher than that specified by the state or federal governments? If so, to what rate?

The most important issue for citizens of Baltimore is the designation of Baltimore as an International Economic Zone and the coming push to install a Trans Pacific Trade Pact that PRETENDS to allow US cities like Baltimore to operate independent of all US Constitutional and Federal, state, and local laws tying these US International Economic Zones to those overseas under the guise of global free market and competiveness. So, global corporations and politicians working for them plan to tell citizens in Baltimore there are no obligations for global corporations in Baltimore to meet any labor laws including minimum wage. This can bring wages in Baltimore to that paid in third world nations. This is where Baltimore Development and Baltimore City Hall politicians are taking Baltimore. They are promoting a $15 an hour wage at the same time moving all these global corporate and Trans Pacific Trade Pact policies into place.

That said, I will stop this installation of International Economic Zone policy and TPP which are both unconstitutional and an attack on Baltimore City sovereignty----both US and Maryland Constitutions do not allow such complete loss of control of city development and economic systems. I will instead rebuild a local, domestic, small business economy in each community with small business manufacturing in the surrounding communities creating more and better jobs for our citizens. No global trade agreements or status can effect this local economy! That said I do intend to install a $15 an hour but will work with our mom-and-pop businesses to move these wage policies forward. I see Living Wage as higher than $15 and will continue to work towards that goal.

As mayor, will you support TIF’s, PILOT’s, or specialized and exclusive tax breaks on behalf of individuals or LLC’s that have made donations to your mayoral campaign?

I will be ending those programs----we need everyone paying their fair share of taxes from corporations, the rich, and I will be looking at what are called non-profits that are clearly for-profit corporations to contribute to our revenue streams. Everyone in and no one out------

Will you continue Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake’s efforts to reduce or eliminate the so-called “minor privilege fees” paid by Baltimore businesses?

If you understand the history of taxation in Baltimore in modern history it moved tax responsibility from corporations and the affluent and pushed it to citizens and small business. This is why there are so many permits, fees, fines, and property taxes are so high for our citizens and small business. As I stated above I will end this lack of tax uniformity------did you know US and Maryland Constitution calls for tax uniformity? Much of the tax policies in Baltimore were never legal and I will pursue ending this deregulation of our tax uniformity laws.

Would you require each city agency perform an annual financial audit?

Did you know back in the Clinton/Bush era the Federal, state, and local governments were allowed to suspend what was in modern history BEST PRACTICES accounting and auditing that made the US #1 in the world for oversight and accountability of not only government but our corporations? FDR and New Deal in early 1900s even passed laws making these quality accounting and auditing standards more effective and efficient. I call this first world accountability. Clinton/Bush because they were Wall Street and corporate politicians didn’t want all that accountability and dismantled all structures in our government agencies that did that AND replaced our first world accounting and auditing with a third world process that does not look for fraud and corruption but only if accounting standards have been used and if a form is missing. It does not audit the data to make sure data is accurate or in some cases even there. This is why Federal audits for Wall Street fraud and corporate fraud everyone knows is there always comes back with no guilt and small settlements----they are not looking for fraud and only fining for failure to follow procedures. This is the history of Baltimore audits that everyone knows tell Baltimore citizens nothing and allowed for the complete non-existence of any Baltimore agency accountability. So, if a candidate does not tell you all of this but instead simply repeats-----audits, audits, audits----they intend to keep using the standards that do not look for fraud and corruption. They use the terms finding efficiencies and waste.

I have decades of experience professionally building these very structures for oversight and accountability and know the first world BEST PRACTICES style of accounting and auditing and I will be installing them in each department of all agencies. This means checks and balances in daily data entry-----weekly spot-audits to assure against procedure failures---monthly audits of agencies----and then an annual meeting and report viewing those 12 months of audits to find problems and make changes for efficiency and effectiveness. This allows immediate responses to any problems including fraud and corruption. Each stage of this process will be posted online with public transparency.