–ANALYSIS–

In an election year “State of the City” speech that offered several new programs and decried the “mindless austerity” of her opponents’ property tax cut proposals, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake delivered the annual “State of the City” address Monday to a packed City Council chamber.

“Some may irresponsibly choose to ignore and mislead on these fundamental questions, especially when discussing property tax relief,” Rawlings-Blake said.

“A real vision for the City begins with treating the people of Baltimore with honesty and respect. If it sounds too good to be true, it isn’t true.”

With an $81 million budget deficit looming, and her opponents prominently blasting her for lacking a “vision” for Baltimore’s future, Rawlings-Blake seemed to have set herself the tricky rhetorical task of sounding both wisely managerial and loftily inspirational.

“As Mayor, I’m choosing to head down the straight-talking, no sugar-coating path toward change and progress for Baltimore,” she said, at the close of the speech. “I am asking everyone in this great City to join me.”

Analyzing Rawlings-Blake’s “vision” or lack of it moves into the fuzzy style-vs.-substance question and opinions will differ on how much her vaunted stern demeanor — on display in this speech — reflects simple personal style or an inability to think big and inspire.

She offered a package of new initiatives designed to promote technology jobs and innovation, target domestic violence and support city schools. She also noted her intention to solve Baltimore’s financial problems by going after the $250 million spent annually on benefits for city employees and retirees.

“Cities put off tough challenges and failed to prepare for the day of reckoning,” Rawlings-Blake said, alluding to pre-recession boom years. “Well, that day of reckoning is here.”

Along with benefit changes, she warned, there could also be consolidation of city services as part of a Ten Year Financial Plan she wants to draft for the city. If audience members were listening for a reference to cutting property taxes, it was here:

“The plan will help us create clear long-term budget priorities, improve cost-effective delivery of core city services, and help establish a pro-jobs and pro-growth tax structure for Baltimore’s future, including a path towards reduction in property taxes,” she said.

(Property tax cuts have been advocated by three of Rawings-Blake’s probable mayoral challengers: former city planning director Otis Rolley III, City Councilman Carl Stokes and Greater Baltimore Board of Realtors vice president Joseph T. “Jody” Landers.)

Pros and cons of incumbency

Some of her political opponents’ criticisms – that she is an entrenched insider who represents the status quo — were difficult to counter given the setting and the situation.

As City Council President, Rawlings-Blake inherited the mayoral job when predecessor Sheila Dixon stepped down in disgrace last year after a corruption scandal. Rawlings-Blake’s $840,000 campaign war chest — and support from political and civic leaders and power-brokers — give her a clear edge as she aims to persuade voters in September to let her keep her job.

There were many of them, of course, gathered in the ornate room. There also, just a few feet from Rawlings-Blake, was City Councilman William A. “Pete” Welch Jr., who received the Mayor’s tacit support as he moved to take his retiring mother’s 9th District seat amid charges of cronyism.

Under fire on Economic Development

With her political opponents tying her to big-scale redevelopments they say benefit developers more than citizens, Rawlings-Blake made no mention of stalled projects like State Center and the West Side Superblock redevelopment or the controversial Wal-Mart-based 25th St. Station development in North Baltimore.

Likewise, the East Baltimore biotech park project, the subject of a recent scathing investigative report in The Daily Record and imminent City Council hearings, did not come up.

Instead, she announced a reorganization of the Baltimore Development Corporation, the city’s public-private development agency which has been helping to steer those and other projects since its creation in 1991.

The agency (which BDC officials said would see staff cuts under the rejiggering) will focus on three areas: real estate development; expansion, retention and attraction of business including small business; and retail and commercial development in neighborhoods beyond downtown.

The only staff addition to the BDC, she said, would be a new “economic development financial czar to help move more projects to completion.”

The other BDC initiative where Rawlings-Blake proposed to spend money was Canton’s Emerging Technology Center, due to get an additional $100,000.

Just last week, political opponent Rolley made a campaign appearance in that very building, hosted by some tech entrepreneurs who have announced their support of him. (During Q&A, in response to a questioner who said the BDC “seem(s) to be able to make a lot of decisions that they’re not held accountable for” Rolley agreed, saying  of the agency “I think it needs to do what it is tasked to do.”)

Rawlings-Blake also said she has asked the Greater Baltimore Committee, the Economic Alliance of Greater Baltimore and the Baltimore Development Corp. to come up with a plan to “create jobs in emerging industry sectors and position our city for business expansion.”

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Among the other initiatives Rawlings-Blake announced or discussed:

* Creation of a Youth Cabinet, to be headed by Enoch Pratt Library executive director Carla Hayden, to coordinates services for young people.
* State legislation to toughen gun laws.
* The Vacants-to-Value program aimed reducing the number of vacant properties in Baltimore.
* A task force to review domestic violence initiatives that recognizes the connection between that issue and access to guns.