Baltimore sues to remove ‘baby bonus’ from November ballot

The City of Baltimore is suing to block a ballot measure that would offer new parents $1,000 in an effort to fight child poverty.

The Baltimore Baby Bonus Fund said it learned Thursday that Baltimore’s mayor and City Council had filed a lawsuit to remove the baby bonus from the ballot. The lawsuit came shortly after the measure gathered the necessary 10,000 signatures to appear on the November ballot.

“While Mayor Scott is supportive of the proposed amendment’s objectives, charter amendments that effectively commandeer the role of the legislature go against Maryland law and the City’s charter,” the office of Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said in a statement. “That is why we have directed the Law Department to oppose the amendment as improper despite our sympathies toward the underlying policy.”

“At the local level, we currently don’t have the resources to make that type of support permanent,” the mayor’s office added. “Mayor Scott hopes the Baltimore Baby Bonus campaign will join the administration in advocating for universal basic income at the Congressional level.”

The baby bonus would be available to all of Baltimore’s “new parents,” regardless of income upon the birth or adoption of a child, and it would cost about $7 million annually, according to the initiative’s campaign website, which is about 0.16% of the city’s budget.

The initiative wouldn’t raise taxes, but it would require an appropriation equal to 0.03% of the city’s property value. The Baltimore City Council would decide how to allocate funding. 

The Baltimore Baby Bonus Fund said that its organizers had “rigorously studied case law to ensure that our proposal was permissible” and called the lawsuit an “attack on democracy.”

“In reality, this is about power and taking away city voters’ opportunity to enact the Baby Bonus Fund,” the group wrote in a post on X. “This attempt to remove us from the ballot is a grave disservice to Baltimore’s families and children.”