Better Buses, Better City: Baltimore’s Transit Future with Brian O’Malley (Central Maryland Transportation Alliance)

Across Maryland, about one in six kids lives in poverty. In Baltimore City, it’s closer to one in three. This November, city voters will decide on the Baby Bonus Fund, a charter amendment that would set aside a small slice of property tax revenue to support families with newborns. Councilman Zac Blanchard sits down with Nate Golden of the Maryland Child Alliance and the Baltimore Baby Bonus Fund campaign to break down what the amendment does, what it doesn’t, and why it matters. Nate, a Forest Park High School math teacher, explains how classroom experience pushed him from state-level advocacy to a people-powered campaign at the city level, and why the research points to the earliest years as the best place to invest. He and Zac dig into the lessons of the expanded federal child tax credit, why Maryland’s state tax credits still leave the poorest families behind, and the political realities of getting any of it passed in Annapolis. The conversation then turns to the Baby Bonus Fund itself: how the original version was struck down by a court, how the revised amendment sets aside an estimated $17 to $18 million for fiscal year 2028, and what happens next if it passes. Nate walks through the case for direct cash payments, the Rx Kids model from Flint, Michigan, and the tradeoffs between universal, neighborhood-targeted, and Medicaid-based approaches. They close with the biggest lessons from three years of organizing, including 27,000 signatures and conversations with more than 30,000 Baltimoreans. Learn more about the campaign: https://www.baltimorebabybonus.com/ Contact: Show Website: https://blanchardbaltimore.transistor.fm/ Councilman’s Official Page: https://www.zacblanchardd11.com/ Email: [email protected]

Baltimore City's budget is one of the most powerful — and least understood — documents in local government. In this episode, Councilman Zac Blanchard sits down with City Comptroller Bill Henry, who spent 13 years on the City Council before being elected Comptroller, for a candid walkthrough of who actually controls the city's $5 billion budget and why. Bill traces how a 1960s "professionalization" push under Mayor Theodore McKeldin quietly stripped the Comptroller's office of its financial authority and handed it to the Mayor — creating what Bill calls a "strong Board of Estimates system" hiding behind the label of a strong mayor system. He and Zac dig into why that concentration of budget power matters for everyday Baltimoreans, using the BG&E conduit deal as a case study in what happens when 16 of 17 elected officials disagree with the Mayor and the deal moves forward anyway. The conversation also gets personal: what budget week actually feels like from inside the Council, the "choose or die" dynamic between the Mayor's and Council President's competing asks, and the three very different kinds of agendas council members are juggling — citywide policy, district-level needs, and basic staff resources. Bill closes with his own proposal for fixing the imbalance: putting the Department of Finance back under the Comptroller's office, independent of the Mayor. Contact: Show Website: https://blanchardbaltimore.transistor.fm/ Councilman's Official Page: https://www.zacblanchardd11.com/ Email: [email protected]

What if Baltimore could lower property taxes on homeowners and small businesses while raising them on blighted, vacant, and speculator-held land, at no net cost to the city? Zac talks with Vanessa Beck of Baltimore Thrive about the land value tax shift, a policy that splits the property tax into two rates: one on land, one on buildings, and shifts the burden away from productive use and onto speculation. Vanessa walks through how the shift would actually change Baltimore's commercial corridors and vacant lots, the real-world results from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where vacant properties dropped from over 5,000 to a few hundred, and how the policy is designed to be revenue-neutral rather than a tax increase. Zac and Vanessa also dig into where the state-level legislation stands, what a land value tax shift would mean for over-assessed neighborhoods in West, East, and South Baltimore, and what happens next as Baltimore Thrive pushes for state enabling legislation. Learn more or get involved: baltimorethrive.org

When a small business gets pushed out by a bad landlord, it's not just one storefront that goes dark — it's a signal to the whole block that there's no future there. Zac talks with Tanner Mobley, co-owner of Affogato Cat Cafe in Fells Point and organizer of the Baltimore Small Business Bill of Rights Coalition, about what's actually happening to small businesses on the ground. Tanner shares the story that catalyzed the movement — a fellow business owner whose ceiling collapsed from an upstairs leak, whose unreachable landlord sent someone to clean up sewage with a bottle of Fabuloso, and who later discovered the landlord had filed an insurance claim in her name and kept the money. Tanner and Zac dig into the specific protections the coalition is fighting for: 90 days' notice before a rent hike or eviction, basic maintenance standards, and a vacancy tax paired with tax credits to get Baltimore's estimated one-in-four empty storefronts back in use. They also talk through the bureaucratic maze that makes it hard to open a small business in the first place, and what's next as the coalition heads toward introducing legislation this fall. Learn more or get involved: bmoresmallbusinessrights.com Contact Have a question, story idea, or feedback for the show? Reach out to Zac Blanchard's office: Show Website: https://blanchardbaltimore.transistor.fm/ Councilman's Official Page: https://www.baltimorecity.gov/city-council/zac-blanchard-district-11 Email: [email protected]

Home to the world-famous Lexington Market and a stretch of historic but largely vacant department stores, Market Center is one of downtown Baltimore's biggest opportunities — and one of its toughest challenges. Zac talks with Anne Winder of the Market Center Merchants Association and Lieanne Navarro of the Market Center CDC about what it will actually take to bring this 27-block corridor back to life. Anne and Lieanne describe a neighborhood that's a genuine melting pot — one of the city's most immigrant- and Black-owned business corridors — while being honest about the real safety and vacancy challenges it still faces. They walk through the community-led Market Center Strategic Revitalization Plan passed in 2024, and what real partnership between residents, business owners, and city government looks like in practice.