By Adam Reuter
If you want to see how a county government sells out its own people, you didn’t need to look further than the December 9th Work Session. It was a sports clinic in corporate welfare, gaslighting, and the soft corruption that has become business as usual in Towson, Maryland.
While you were worrying about holiday plans and how you were going to pay your bills, the Baltimore County Council was busy rolling out the red carpet for a 50-year tax holiday for a multi-billion dollar corporation. That’s right—50 years!
The Sparrows Point Swindle
The headline act was Bill 88-25, the “Payment in Lieu of Taxes” (PILOT) agreement for the Sparrows Point Container Terminal. The Administration paraded out their polished charts to tell us that giving a tax break to a massive shipping conglomerate is actually good for us. They claimed that while the deal might lose the county $3.4 million in direct revenue, the “magic” of economic activity would somehow turn that into $500 million over half a century.
It’s the same old “trickle-down” voodoo economics they’ve been peddling for decades. They promise you the moon to get the tax break today, and when the revenue doesn’t show up ten years from now, they’ll be long gone, retired on state pensions.
And who was leading the cheerleading squad? Councilman Julian Jones. He had the audacity to call this corporate handout a “no-brainer.” Of course it’s a no-brainer for him—he’s not the one who will have to pay higher taxes to cover the schools and roads that this corporation won’t be paying for. Jones sat there, beaming, telling folksy stories about selling candy, completely ignoring the fact that he is mortgaging our children’s future to please the donor class.
The “Oops” Bill in Rosedale
But the Sparrows Point deal wasn’t the only insult. We also witnessed the birth of Bill 93-25, or as I like to call it, the “We Screwed Up, So Let’s Bail Out the Developer” Act.
Chairman Mike Ertel openly admitted this bill exists because a specific project in Rosedale got hit with impact fees “unbeknownst” to the planners. Instead of making the developer pay their fair share like every other business owner in this county, the Council is rewriting the law to waive the fees.
Think about that. If you forget to pay a fee, you get a fine. If a politically connected developer forgets to account for a fee, the County Council passes a law to make it go away. It is a retroactive handout, plain and simple.
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The Real Heroes
The only light in that dismal chamber came from the citizens who refused to be silenced.
We need to salute Alexander Pappas. He stood before that Council and spoke the truth they didn’t want to hear. He called the deal what it is: “rigged.” He pointed out the obvious disparity—the tax break for the corporation is “ironclad” and “exact,” while the promises made to the taxpayers are full of words like “potentially” and “anticipates.”
Pappas is right. The taxpayer takes all the risk; the corporation takes all the profit. That is not a partnership; that is a predation.
The Fix is in
The union members showed up in force, and I don’t blame them—they want jobs. But the Council is using labor as a human shield to protect corporate profits. They are pitting workers against taxpayers to distract us from the fact that they are giving away the store.
Today, December 15th, they are going to vote to finalize these insults. They expect you to be too busy with the holidays to notice. They expect this to pass quietly, unanimously, and without consequence.
Prove them wrong. Watch the vote. Remember their names. Because if we don’t hold them accountable for selling us out today, there won’t be anything left to sell tomorrow!
