Community advocates concerned with library closures and public health cuts said Tuesday that they were trapped in the middle of a political feud between Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and the City Council.
The administration refused Tuesday to release a list of budget cuts to pay for the after-school programs that council members are demanding.
Both sides said negotiations were continuing as the July 1 start of the new fiscal year approached. Rawlings-Blake has named broad areas of the budget where she would find cuts to shift $4.2 million to pay for after-school programs and avoid the city government shutdown threatened by council leaders.
The mayor's office declined to provide specifics on what Rawlings-Blake has called "painful cuts," saying only that the administration flagged tree maintenance, graffiti removal, code enforcement, public health and libraries as places in the $2.6 billion budget to find reductions.
A spokesman for the Enoch Pratt Free Library said the announcement that library spending could be cut took officials there by surprise.
Spokesman Roswell Encina said cuts could affect "the gentleman looking for a job at the Pennsylvania Avenue branch or the Latino family that goes to the Southeast branch for Spanish story time or all of the kids and teens across the city that go to the Pratt, especially over the summer."
"They are in the middle of politicking each other, and the people they are using as pawns are Baltimore residents," Encina said.
Kevin Lindamood, president of Health Care for the Homeless, called the impasse a "game of political chicken."
He said city leaders should evaluate the way services are interconnected before shifting funds from one program to another.
"We reject the false dichotomy this game sets up," Lindamood said. "When we pit pressing human need and vulnerable populations against one another, Baltimore loses."
City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young and budget Chairwoman Helen Holton said they juggled meetings with Rawlings-Blake's finance staff and public hearings Tuesday in a good-faith effort to find common ground.
About 100 people attended the council's "taxpayers' night" Tuesday to urge funding for a wide range of programs — skate parks, help for immigrant high school students, a dirt bike track, street paving.
A spokesman for Rawlings-Blake said the mayor is responding to the council's request to find more money for children, and her office continues to be in contact with council members to communicate her budget priorities and explain her proposed cuts.
"By week's end, we anticipate that we will be in a position to notify all impacted parties of the cuts the mayor will move forward in this budget process," spokesman Anthony McCarthy said.
Young and Holton have said they would reject the mayor's proposed budget unless she found money to pay for after-school programs for about 2,500 children and to operate community programs at six schools.
Rejecting the budget would have effectively shut down government.
Rawlings-Blake has said she tried to compromise with Young. She pointed to her recommendation to sell some of the city's parking garages to raise the extra cash. Young rebuffed her.
"We're working hard; we're here and we're working," Young said Tuesday.
He outlined a menu of budget cuts the council presented to the administration that he said would not be as painful as the categories Rawlings-Blake flagged.
Young said the council identified a group of unfilled positions to cut worth $1.6 million, a $500,000 reduction in the mayor's "special events budget" for festivals and another $500,000 from a fund to pay for replacement trash cans.
Other cuts would come from a horticulture program to beautify City Hall, right-of-way cleaning and an anti-litter campaign.
Young said he would not support cuts to the library that would affect youths. He also said he is examining the cuts the administration has recommended.
The $4.2 million at issue is roughly equal to the amount a new tax cut for seniors could cost the city. Young introduced the tax break, and Rawlings-Blake agreed, reluctantly, to sign it. The council approved it on Monday.
Holton said the cuts to the library, public health and other programs Rawlings-Blake outlined this week were designed to "pull at the heartstrings."
Instead of creating "dramatic messaging," Holton said, the mayor should be working with the council.
"We're not looking to have overly painful cuts," Holton said. "Staying engaged in the conversation with give-and-take and without ultimatums is the way to go, and that's what we're working toward."
Roger E. Hartley, dean of the University of Baltimore College of Public Affairs, said the budget stalemate is following a familiar strategy employed by Washington politicians.
Negotiations start behind closed doors, soliciting public input and reaching out to constituencies that may be affected, he said.
When that stalls, he said, some officials choose to go public to break the gridlock.
"It's standard when people are not able to work their differences out," he said. "Congress does it all of the time."
Hartley said Rawlings-Blake's decision not to release the specifics on her proposed cuts was made with good reason: to stop constituency groups from banding together to block cuts.
Officials with the housing and health departments declined to comment on potential cuts. Other officials, such as staff at city-based art museums, said they were awaiting details.
Patterson Park resident Matt Gonter, an activist on housing and tax issues, said he hopes city leaders consider the unintended consequences that could come from cuts.
Reducing funding for tree maintenance, for instance, could lead to stop signs being blocked by leaves and branches, he said. Cuts to code enforcement could create unsafe conditions in neighborhoods with dilapidated housing.
"It's some things like that can lead people to leave the city," Gonter said.
Baltimore Sun reporter Tim Prudente contributed to this article.
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