Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott has signed into law a bill that creates a special property tax increase for vacant homes.
CBS News reported the bill was introduced in early October and was unanimously sponsored by the members of the City Council. The tax increase is designed to encourage homeowners to better maintain their vacant properties and enable to city to take control of vacant buildings if necessary.
Although the city has recorded a 20% drop in vacant building notices over the past years, there are still 13,000 vacant properties throughout Baltimore, with thousands more falling into derelict states; the city government owns less than 1,000 vacant properties.
The bill will hike taxes on vacant properties threefold, starting in the 2026-2027 tax year, and then four times the following year in the properties remain vacant. The city was eager to enact a vacant home tax bill for years, but it had to wait for approval from the Maryland General Assembly before it could make changes to its property tax rates.
“Anybody who’s holding properties not doing anything with them, hopefully, this will change behavior and incentivize them to do something,” said Councilwoman Odette Ramos.
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