Baltimore sues to remove $1,000 "Baby Bonus" from 2024 ballot, organizers criticize "attack on democracy"

BALTIMORE -- Baltimore City is suing to prevent a ballot measure that would bring $1,000 cash infusions to new parents in the city, arguing it violates state and local laws. 

The Maryland Child Alliance surpassed the 10,000 signature threshold required by the Board of Elections to put the "Baltimore Baby Bonus" on the 2024 General Election ballot, and it was certified by the board on July 1. 

On Thursday, the alliance said it was informed by the Baltimore Mayor's office and the City Council of Baltimore filed a lawsuit to remove the bonus from the 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 Mayor's Office 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."

Improperness aside, the city said it simply wouldn't have the funds to sustain the program, and encouraged the alliance to join the city's push for a universal basic income at the federal level. 

"At the local level we currently don't have the resources to make that type of support permanent, which is why we're advocating for the federal government to look at the success of guaranteed income pilots like ours to make it possible for more Americans," the mayor's office said. 

The organization behind the push said the $7 million in funding needed for the proposed program would come from the City's general fund based on the assessment of property values. However, taxes would not be raised. 

The Baltimore Baby Bonus Fund called the lawsuit a "grave disservice to Baltimore's families and children" in a social media post and said the mayor's rhetoric "does not match his budget."

The group said its organizers "rigorously studied case law to ensure that our proposal was permissible" and lifted the funding structure from the Baltimore Children and Youth Fund, which Scott sponsored when he was a councilman in 2016. 

"In reality, this is about power and taking away city voters' opportunity to enact the Baby Bonus Fund," the group said. "We are fully confident that the courts will reject this attack on democracy."