Advertisement
Readers Respond

Use tax dollars to save Baltimore’s children | READER COMMENTARY

For The Baltimore Sun
•

Thank you for supporting our journalism. This article is available exclusively for our subscribers, who help fund our work at The Baltimore Sun.

Employees from Sinai Hospital stand by red desks that have been placed on the hospital lawn facing Northern Parkway. Lifebridge Health's Center for Hope launched the Red Desk Project, a public art statement to call attention to child homicide in Baltimore. There are 111 red desks representing the 111 children who have died as a result of child abuse or gun violence in Baltimore since 2015 as of April 29, 2021. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun).

Employees from Sinai Hospital stand by red desks that have been placed on the hospital lawn facing Northern Parkway. Lifebridge Health's Center for Hope launched the Red Desk Project, a public art statement to call attention to child homicide in Baltimore. There are 111 red desks representing the 111 children who have died as a result of child abuse or gun violence in Baltimore since 2015 as of April 29, 2021. (Barbara Haddock Taylor/Baltimore Sun). (Barbara Haddock Taylor)

The recent report on child homicides is devastating (”Homicides top cause of ‘unexpected’ childhood deaths in Baltimore, report finds,” Jan. 21). The numbers of children dying due to abuse and neglect related to family members with substance use disorders and domestic violence means we are failing to get available help to parents in need of support and interventions. Accidental shootings of children means we are failing to keep weapons away from children. This whole situation has many dimensions and is truly a public health emergency that needs a crisis-oriented response.

While I fully support using American Rescue Plan funds toward solutions, that is a short-term source of funding. I am more interested in getting some of Maryland’s surplus dollars directed to elimination of preventable childhood deaths so that this year and each year in the future, we can eliminate such tragedies. Gov. Larry Hogan is proposing a large amount of tax breaks at a time when our state needs funding to address a wide array of social, economic, educational, public health and environmental issues.

Advertisement

I hope our Baltimore delegation will stand against such tax cuts and support using available public sources to bolster current programs and agencies and conquer what is clearly a crisis in our city.

Tricia Rubacky, Baltimore

Advertisement

Add your voice: Respond to this piece or other Sun content by submitting your own letter.

Advertisement