This article was originally going to be about the “STOP THE BALTIMORE BEVERAGE TAX” leaflet/postage paid postcards that I saw in front of just about every house in Hampden on Sunday. The anti-bottle tax people clearly had some money to spend, but on Monday the City Council approved the new tax despite an interesting counter-proposal from 4th district councilman Bill Henry.
I don’t think this tax is a good thing. It is not going to come close to fixing schools and it will hurt small businesses. I also doubt that most of the money will end up dedicated to education. The city is not known for keeping good track of its finances.
The following two reader comments from the Baltimore Brew bottle tax article shed light on two of the major problems with Baltimore City:
“I wonder if this new fund will be audited…”
and
“Finally, we as a society do not seem to be able to handle the truth about child abuse. In Baltimore City it is rampant. In this type of environment, the quality of schools and teachers can only make modest improvements. Neglecting and devaluing children should be a source of shame, not accepted as the norm.”
If children are beaten, yelled at, and tortured they are not going to be able to learn and they will also prevent other kids from learning. All the school funding in the world is not going to stop abusive parents.
BaltimoreHourly.com 