At today’s Baltimore City Council meeting, Council President Bernard “Jack” Young and Councilmember Eric Costello intend to introduce legislation to offer qualifying public safety officers a property tax credit for homes they own and personally occupy within city limits. The credit is intended to incentivize public safety officers to live where they work. It may not exceed $2,500 per tax year.

The Baltimore Sun quotes Council President Young:

Having more of our city’s public safety officials reside in Baltimore makes great sense from a fiscal standpoint, and will go a long way toward building better relationships between officers and the public they’re sworn to serve.

The Sun further reports that Mayor Catherine Pugh backs the legislation. As a State Senator, Mayor Pugh sponsored Senate Bill 552, which authorized the City to offer the tax credit. Delegate Mary Washington introduced the bill’s crossfile on behalf of then-Mayor Rawlings-Blake’s administration.

All local governments received authority from the State last session to issue a similar property tax credit to public safety officers who live and work within their jurisdictions through House Bill 979. The new law became effective on June 1, 2017, for tax years beginning in fiscal 2018.