Testimony submitted by Hathaway Ferebee on behalf of the Safe and Sound Campaign and the I AM BALTIMORE Opportunity Agenda.

(Written testimony by Hathaway Ferebee, executive director, Safe and Sound Campaign, submitted to Baltimore City Taxpayers Night, April 11, 2012)

Honorable Jack Young and members of the Board of Estimates:

Please accept written testimony on behalf of the Safe and Sound Campaign and the I AM BALTIMORE Opportunity Agenda.

We have grave concerns about the Baltimore City’s FY ’13 Operating Budget.

We fear that the budget ratifies the status quo, deepening structural racism and fostering crime as a direct result of a failing city. We see a budget that is preparing to fill another jail – proposed by the state and adamantly opposed by the citizens.

We submitted four budget requests to the Mayor and members of the City Council. All totaled they represent $22 million dollars or one percent of the budget as well as a $78million increase in state aid.

I once again recommend funding and advocacy for the following:

1) Double the number of summer jobs for youth to 10,000 for $12,000,000.

2) Double the funding for afterschool programs to $8.4 million.

3) Allocate $2 million from the demolition budget to hire returning prisoners trained in deconstruction to take apart vacant houses (recycling 40,000 tons of materials that would otherwise go to the landfill.)

4) Lobby the Governor to redirect the proposed jail funding to alternatives to detention and expanded recreation and job opportunities for youth for an additional $78 million state aid

We do not see these modest requests in the budget, despite their proven positive impact.

I ask the Board to help the citizens understand what motivates your budget decisions. I ask you, the Board of estimates to publish its findings on the extent to which the proposed FY ’13 City Operating Budget provides equal access to the essential opportunities and services for healthy development of our children and youth.

Please include the list of outcomes you expect from your decisions.

How many more babies will be born healthy, how far will infant mortality decline, what will be the increase in children entering school ready to learn; how many fewer incidences of disruption at the harbor place; how many graduating seniors will have bank accounts and a positive credit score; how many will have resumes, how many will have something positive to put on their resumes; how many young adults will have acquired certification for career skills; what percent of the city’s workforce will come from city residents; how many adults Baltimoreans are employed, who will health services?

The budget tells the story. Please give us the narrative to explain why so few opportunities are funded in the proposed FY ’13 budget. Thank you.

Respectfully submitted,

Hathaway Ferebee
Executive Director