Sun investigation: Taxing Baltimore
Taxing Baltimore is a series of occasional articles examining Baltimore's highest-in-the-state property tax rate. To report these stories, The Sun used an automated process called "scraping" to copy 237,000 property tax records from the city's website and compile them into a database. The first articles detailed how the Homestead Property Tax Credit has morphed into a massive subsidy fueling widespread inequality among homeowners -- a problem made worse by errors in billing and inadequate government oversight.
Wealthy N. Baltimore enclaves are home to biggest homestead beneficiaries
If you want to know who in Baltimore benefits most from the homestead property tax credit, look north. More...
City mum on $1.5 million in excessive tax breaks granted to commercial properties
Four months ago, the state assessments agency informed Baltimore’s Finance Department that the owner of The Munsey apartment building had been under-billed by $517,930 on city property tax bills going back to 2007, all because of incorrectly calculated tax breaks. More...
Baltimore historic tax credits continue to show errors
The ink was barely dry on Baltimore City’s new property tax bills when we spotted fresh errors in the way some historic tax credits were recently calculated. More...
Baltimore property tax document shows anatomy of a $576,000 mistake
Anatomy of a $576,000 mistake More...
Tax break errors cost Baltimore millions, Sun investigation finds
The city of Baltimore has failed to collect millions of dollars in potential revenue because of chronic errors and miscalculations in a program offering tax breaks for historic renovations, a Baltimore Sun investigation has found. More...
Homeowner works out deal with city after tax billing error
Like a car salesman, the City of Baltimore started high, came down and ended up making a deal all sides could live with. More...
Are city homeowners allowed to double up on tax credits?
Last week while reporting on the latest tax credit mess, we learned about an obscure 1999 Baltimore law that appeared to have potentially big consequences. It seemed to bar city homeowners from getting both a historic rehab tax credit and a homestead credit on the same house at the same time. More...
Baltimore City works haltingly to explain property tax credit errors
Five Baltimore homeowners have been getting erroneous historic rehab property tax credits for the past two years. Once the errors were discovered, the city was quick to demand that all five pay the money back — and within 30 days, thanks. More...
City homeowners given 30 days to repay tax credits they didn't request
Over the past two years, Maureen Coyle has received $5,700 in property tax breaks that the city admits she never requested for her Patterson Park rowhouse. Now the city is demanding full repayment by month's end. More...
Assembly OKs bill imposing fines for improper homestead tax credits
The General Assembly has approved a bill imposing steep penalties on homeowners who are caught getting homestead property tax credits they're not entitled to receive. More...
Developer Blake Cordish pays city $14,000 after tax error
Baltimore City is $14,026.32 less poor thanks to developer Blake Cordish. That’s how much he paid after the state fixed a three-year-old error that vastly undervalued his Federal Hill mega-rowhouse. More...
Homeowners must apply for property-tax credit or lose it
Tens of thousands of Maryland homeowners who haven't already applied for the Homestead Property Tax Credit have until the end of the year to do so or lose the often-valuable break. More...
Assessment review planned after 2nd error involving consolidated property
When a Baltimore couple combined two Federal Hill rowhouses into a double-wide home a few years ago, the state's tax assessors made a mistake: Instead of factoring in the values of two addresses, they set the new home's value as if it were still just a single rowhouse. More...
Rawlings-Blake backs proposed fine for tax credit scofflaws
As someone who's made a hobby of unmasking tax cheats, Patterson Park activist Matt Gonter told state lawmakers Tuesday that he backs a proposal to fine homeowners caught getting unwarranted homestead credits on their property tax bills. More...
TAXING BALTIMORE
Many don't know about tax break for lower-income homeowners
Vera Artis would seem to be a perfect fit for the state program created decades ago to ease the property tax burden on homeowners with modest incomes. More...
City officials want to spread word about homeowners' tax credit
Two Baltimore City Council members are planning campaigns to get the word out about property tax assistance for homeowners with modest incomes, reacting to a Baltimore Sun article that showed the pool of apparently eligible city homeowners is far larger than the number of people actually receiving the help. More...
Tax credit for homeowners means big break for some, nothing for thousands
Jeff Burdick and his next-door neighbors have nearly identical two-story rowhouses, on the same block of East Clement Street with the same public schools and the same city trash pickup. But one striking difference is the $5,300 he pays in yearly property taxes — more than both his neighbors combined. More...
Sun analysis finds 17 owners with three or four homestead credits, hundreds of double-dippers
Since 2009 Patrick Tong has received "homestead" property tax breaks worth $18,000 on three rowhouses he owns in East Baltimore. More...
City councilman presses for property-tax overhaul
Along with some of his neighbors, the chairman of the Baltimore City Council's taxation committee is getting a remarkable tax break on his home: He pays just 16 percent of the bill. The Homestead Property Tax Credit picks up the rest. More...
Key state lawmaker calls for property tax cap overhaul
A state lawmaker who helps set tax policy is calling for an overhaul of Maryland's property tax cap law, after a Baltimore Sun investigation documented how the costly program has resulted in homeowners across Baltimore paying vastly different amounts for similarly valued houses. More...
Loss of tax breaks means hefty bills for homeowners
Eugene Schoene maxed out a credit card, drained his checking account and borrowed money from a relative. It was the only way, he says, to pay an unexpected property tax bill of gigantic proportions. More...
Bill would impose civil penalties on homestead credit scofflaws
Maryland homeowners who are caught getting unwarranted homestead credits on their property tax bills would face fines equal to 25 percent of any undeserved break, under a bill introduced Friday in the General Assembly. More...
Botched Federal Hill valuation highlights shrinking number of assessors
The imposing three-story home on the 200 block of E. Montgomery St.stands out from its more modest Federal Hill neighbors. The edifice, with 15 front windows and a gated driveway, is noticeably bigger and no doubt much pricier. More...
Top property tax bills in Baltimore add up to big bucks
When the city sends Tom Clancy his property tax bill, finance officials might want to tuck in a thank-you note. More...
Top tax bills in Baltimore City
The homes and commercial properties with the biggest property-tax bills in Baltimore are largely within walking distance of each other, with most clustered downtown and around the Inner Harbor. The Baltimore Sun analyzed city records to rank the properties with the most taxes — after accounting for any breaks — for the tax year that ends June 30. By way of comparison: The taxes on a city home that's assessed at $100,000 come to $2,268. More...
Chat Wrap: Sun Investigation: Taxing Baltimore
Reporters Jamie Smith Hopkins and Scott Calvert chatted with readers earlier today on the findings of The Sun's investigation of Maryland's Homestead Property Tax Credit. More...
Editorial: Baltimore homestead tax credits: Gross inequality
A homeowner should not pay more in property taxes than his two neighbors put together for their nearly identical homes. But that's exactly what Sun reporters Scott Calvert and Jamie Smith Hopkins found in a comprehensive and unprecedented review of Baltimore City's homestead tax break program. More...
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