Gov.-elect Parris N. Glendening said yesterday that it was "unfortunate" that the city plans to go to court for an infusion of money for its schools.
But he said he wouldn't try to block a suit expected to be filed next week against the state by Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Mr. Glendening said that even after a suit is filed, he would try to resolve the matter "around the table or through the legislative process. I don't like court-imposed solutions."
He emphasized several times in a daylong tour of Baltimore that he would not raise taxes for any cause, including education. Mr. Glendening visited with business leaders, high school students, newspaper editorial writers, legislators, City Council members and the mayor before partying with supporters last night at a Fells Point nightclub.
Both Mr. Schmoke and Mr. Glendening played down any tension that might have resulted from the mayor, in effect, suing his political ally less than a month after city voters gave Mr. Glendening a 75,000-vote margin in the Nov. 8 race for governor.
"We had dinner last week and discussed the suit -- but he waited until after we'd finished eating," Mr. Glendening said. "There's nothing personal here, and I'm taking it at that level. If the city didn't file, someone else would have anyway."
Mr. Schmoke said Mr. Glendening had tried to talk him out of filing the suit, "But we feel strongly that just leaving things status quo is not going to allow poor-performing schools to be successful."
The mayor said he decided to go to court "several months ago, in late spring," after he saw that the recommendations of a school-finance commission appointed by Gov. William Donald Schaefer "didn't even get out of committee. . . . The political will simply isn't there in Annapolis."
The city and three rural counties had been to court before on school finance, but the state Court of Appeals rejected their claims in 1983 after a four-year court battle.
The new litigation, Mr. Schmoke said, "will be quite different. It's the same case that the governor's commission made, that targeted investment in certain poorly performing schools can make a difference in improving academic achievement.
"The state has established standards for what is an adequate education. Now it has an obligation to help schools meet those standards," he said.
Del. Frank D. Boston, a Democrat who heads Baltimore's House delegation, was among those who met with the governor-elect. He said he supported Mr. Schmoke's plans to sue. "The only people who can truly understand and sympathize with the city are people who live in or near it and can feel its pain," he said.
Among Mr. Glendening's stops yesterday was Northwestern High School, where he and the lieutenant governor-elect, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, thanked about 200 students for their help in his campaign. For helping Mr. Glendening, the students received credit for "community service," a requirement for high school graduation in Maryland. Mrs. Townsend was instrumental in organizing the community service program.
Mr. Glendening defended giving students community service credit for working in campaigns, adding that students were "welcome to work for my opponent, too."
Mr. Glendening said the Northwestern students had offered their services to his opponent, Ellen L. Sauerbrey, as well, "but she declined." Carol L. Hirschburg, a campaign aide for Mrs. Sauerbrey, said, "We would never turn down volunteer help."