Across Maryland, about one in six kids lives in poverty. In Baltimore City, it’s closer to one in three. This November, city voters will decide on the Baby Bonus Fund, a charter amendment that would set aside a small slice of property tax revenue to support families with newborns. Councilman Zac Blanchard sits down with Nate Golden of the Maryland Child Alliance and the Baltimore Baby Bonus Fund campaign to break down what the amendment does, what it doesn’t, and why it matters.

Nate, a Forest Park High School math teacher, explains how classroom experience pushed him from state-level advocacy to a people-powered campaign at the city level, and why the research points to the earliest years as the best place to invest. He and Zac dig into the lessons of the expanded federal child tax credit, why Maryland’s state tax credits still leave the poorest families behind, and the political realities of getting any of it passed in Annapolis.

The conversation then turns to the Baby Bonus Fund itself: how the original version was struck down by a court, how the revised amendment sets aside an estimated $17 to $18 million for fiscal year 2028, and what happens next if it passes. Nate walks through the case for direct cash payments, the Rx Kids model from Flint, Michigan, and the tradeoffs between universal, neighborhood-targeted, and Medicaid-based approaches. They close with the biggest lessons from three years of organizing, including 27,000 signatures and conversations with more than 30,000 Baltimoreans.

Learn more about the campaign: https://www.baltimorebabybonus.com/

Contact:

• Show Website: https://blanchardbaltimore.transistor.fm/
• Councilman’s Official Page: https://www.zacblanchardd11.com/
• Email: zachary.blanchard@baltimorecity.gov

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review. It helps more Baltimoreans find the show.

• (00:00) - Child Poverty Stakes
• (00:48) - Meet the Guests
• (01:02) - Baby Bonus Ballot
• (01:47) - Teacher to Advocate
• (03:04) - Why Invest at Birth
• (04:27) - Evidence and Ethics
• (05:47) - Child Tax Credit Lessons
• (08:11) - Fixing Maryland Credits
• (11:46) - Funding and Coalitions
• (14:50) - What the Amendment Does
• (16:50) - Cash Model Options
• (19:46) - Targeting and Politics
• (22:27) - Implementation Pitfalls
• (23:39) - Childcare and Early Spending
• (25:59) - Campaign Lessons and Wrap

Baltimore City's budget is one of the most powerful — and least understood — documents in local government. In this episode, Councilman Zac Blanchard sits down with City Comptroller Bill Henry, who spent 13 years on the City Council before being elected Comptroller, for a candid walkthrough of who actually controls the city's $5 billion budget and why.

Bill traces how a 1960s "professionalization" push under Mayor Theodore McKeldin quietly stripped the Comptroller's office of its financial authority and handed it to the Mayor — creating what Bill calls a "strong Board of Estimates system" hiding behind the label of a strong mayor system. He and Zac dig into why that concentration of budget power matters for everyday Baltimoreans, using the BG&E conduit deal as a case study in what happens when 16 of 17 elected officials disagree with the Mayor and the deal moves forward anyway.

The conversation also gets personal: what budget week actually feels like from inside the Council, the "choose or die" dynamic between the Mayor's and Council President's competing asks, and the three very different kinds of agendas council members are juggling — citywide policy, district-level needs, and basic staff resources. Bill closes with his own proposal for fixing the imbalance: putting the Department of Finance back under the Comptroller's office, independent of the Mayor.

Contact:

• Show Website: https://blanchardbaltimore.transistor.fm/
• Councilman's Official Page: https://www.zacblanchardd11.com/
• Email: zachary.blanchard@baltimorecity.gov

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review — it helps more Baltimoreans find the show.

• (00:00) - Introducing City Comptroller Bill Henry
• (00:41) - The #1 thing Baltimoreans should know about the budget process
• (02:16) - Why the Mayor holds nearly all the cards
• (03:50) - A brief history of Baltimore's strong mayor budget system
• (04:40) - The mid-1960s power grab that moved Finance under the Mayor
• (07:42) - "We don't have a strong mayor system, we have a strong BOE system"
• (08:30) - Why citizens should care about who controls the purse
• (09:44) - The BG&E conduit deal as a warning sign
• (11:39) - Why unchecked executive budget power kills transparency
• (13:54) - Looking ahead to the 2028 charter reform cycle
• (14:07) - What "budget week" (really budget month) looks like for Council
• (15:22) - Taxpayers' Night, then and now
• (18:18) - The information asymmetry problem facing Council members
• (19:30) - Baltimore vs. the federal model: no CBO equivalent for Council
• (22:44) - Bill's pitch for a "super strong comptroller"
• (23:26) - Life on Council during budget season: "choose or die"
• (25:27) - How Mayor-Council President budget negotiations actually work
• (27:32) - The three competing kinds of Council agendas
• (30:40) - If Bill could change one thing about the budget process
• (33:05) - Why not make Finance a fully independent agency instead?
• (36:07) - Closing thoughts

What if Baltimore could lower property taxes on homeowners and small businesses while raising them on blighted, vacant, and speculator-held land, at no net cost to the city? Zac talks with Vanessa Beck of Baltimore Thrive about the land value tax shift, a policy that splits the property tax into two rates: one on land, one on buildings, and shifts the burden away from productive use and onto speculation.

Vanessa walks through how the shift would actually change Baltimore's commercial corridors and vacant lots, the real-world results from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where vacant properties dropped from over 5,000 to a few hundred, and how the policy is designed to be revenue-neutral rather than a tax increase. Zac and Vanessa also dig into where the state-level legislation stands, what a land value tax shift would mean for over-assessed neighborhoods in West, East, and South Baltimore, and what happens next as Baltimore Thrive pushes for state enabling legislation.

Learn more or get involved: baltimorethrive.org

Contact

Have a question, story idea, or feedback for the show? Reach out to Zac Blanchard's office:

• Show Website: https://blanchardbaltimore.transistor.fm/
• Councilman's Official Page: https://www.baltimorecity.gov/city-council/zac-blanchard-district-11
• Email: zachary.blanchard@baltimorecity.gov

Enjoyed this episode? Subscribe to Blanchard on Baltimore so you never miss a conversation, and leave a rating or review — it helps more Baltimoreans find the show.