| Setting Priorities, Producing ResultsMayor Martin O'Malley 
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his year's budget represents a significant step toward reordering the priorities of our city government to set the policies that will move our city forward. At the same time, with the help of groups like the Baltimore Efficiency & Economy Foundation (B.E.E.F.), we are working to create an effective administration that will produce results. Our goals are to:
- Make Baltimore a safe, clean city;
- Increase educational, cultural and recreational opportunities for children;
- Make government responsive, accountable and cost effective;
- Strengthen Baltimore's economy by increasing our tax base, jobs and minority business opportunities; and
- Create stable and healthy neighborhoods.
Until we succeed in stemming and, ultimately, reversing the decline of our city's population and job base, we will labor to reach these goals under severe budgetary constraints. But these limitations call for creativity, fiscal restraint and tough decisions, not tax increases that would harm the city's competitive position.
Our first budget does not include any new taxes. I think most people in our city agree they're already high enough. A $1.576 billion budget is large enough to fund our priorities if we are willing to make politically difficult choices - like reigning in excessive Fire Department overtime, and shifting resources from fire suppression, which is a declining need, to emergency medical service, where demand is skyrocketing.
While we direct resources to priority programs, we must realize that Baltimore's government is not nearly as effective or as efficient as it should be.
One way we will make government more effective is "CitiStat." I have become convinced that the ComStat principles being implemented in our Police Department to fight crime - accurate and timely intelligence, rapid deployment of resources, effective strategies and relentless follow-up - can and should be applied to the management of all city agencies and departments.
City governments collect an enormous amount of information. But it isn't used very much or very well. We are going to change the way city government does business, and make our city a national model for using technology to improve performance.
B.E.E.F. has taken initiative in finding ways to make city government more efficient. And more than 200 volunteers from the Greater Baltimore Committee and the Presidents' Roundtable are performing a management and efficiency study of the largest city departments. These private-sector efforts will bring new ideas to city government, create management structures that will increase efficiency, and reduce costs and increase performance.
Many changes should have been made years ago to reflect changing demographics and needs. With the support and hard work of groups like BEEF, I'm not going to shy away from the tough calls, any more than I will from the easy ones, just because it might be politically expedient in the short run.
Already this year, we've had good economic news. Moody's Investors Service Inc. upgraded Baltimore's bond rating from a negative outlook to stable. Rising property values and increasing home sales - homes in neighborhoods throughout the city are selling for more than the original asking price - have helped close a projected deficit of $31 million for FY 2001.
This growth demonstrates the renewed faith homebuyers have in our city. Every day, as we close down drug corners, make our schools a little better and clean up vacant lots, we are making Baltimore a city people want to invest in. More so than it has been in years, our city is united and hopeful.
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