Committee advances bill to let Baltimore homeowners enroll in residential property tax payment plans

The Baltimore City Budget & Appropriations Committee on April 14 voted to move Council Bill 26-0152 — which would authorize installment payment plans for residential property tax arrears — to second reading on April 27.

Sponsor Councilwoman Ramos said the measure is meant to stabilize homeowners and help avoid tax sale, noting it covers all residential properties, including heir-occupied and rental units. "This is one of the many tools to address that issue," Ramos told the committee as she described the bill’s goal of enabling residents to resolve arrears while maintaining homeownership.

Michael Moxton, director of the Department of Finance, told the committee about program mechanics and scope: roughly 27,592 properties would be eligible, the average balance is about $6,492.82, and about 24 percent of eligible properties are owner-occupied. Moxton said most eligible balances are modest (84.5 percent under $5,000), making catch-up through installment plans feasible for many households. "To take advantage of this program you will have to pay your tax bill—you’re just invited to do it in a more user-friendly way," Moxton explained.

Enrollment would be administered through PromisePay, the vendor the city already uses for water-bill payment plans; Finance reported a flat contract/setup fee of $800,000. Officials said the legal interest rate set in law applies to balances on payment plans: "It is a total of 2% per month until you’re done," Moxton said, and interest accrues on the remaining balance as payments are made.

Officials described outreach and timing. The administration said it has received more than 900 expressions of interest during a pre-signup campaign and that, if the council passes the bill by April 27, the city intends to launch formal enrollment and pull a final data extract on May 13 to remove enrolled properties from that year’s tax-sale list.

Committee members pressed several safeguards: how the program will handle non-owner-occupied properties, whether landlords could exploit the plan for cash flow, and how the city would prevent billing mistakes. Finance and DHCD officials said the program applies only to properties coded as residential by state/property records (condominium units and multifamily residential lots qualify; properties coded commercial do not), that collections staff will follow up on delinquencies, and that DHCD’s tax-sale ombudsman will play a role in outreach and corrections.

Public testimony favored the measure. John Kern of the SOS Fund called the change "a huge step" toward a more just collection system, and Nika Nandy urged including all residential properties to cover heirs and mis-coded parcels. A homeowner speaker described a separate dispute about a vacant-house designation and urged careful drafting to avoid legal loopholes.

The committee moved the bill favorably (motion by Vice President Sharon Green Middleton). Roll call recorded four yes votes (Chair Danielle McCray; Vice Chair Isaac I. Schleifer; Vice President Sharon Green Middleton; Councilman Antonio Glover) and one absence (Councilman Perris Gray). The bill will appear on the council agenda for a second reading on April 27.

Why it matters: the measure creates a formal, city-administered payment option designed to prevent avoidable tax-sale losses and connect struggling owners to support services, but it raises program design questions about landlord use, data accuracy, operational costs, and interest mechanics that the administration will need to monitor and report back on.