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City Council Introduce Bills To Boost Gig Worker Pay, Delay Annual Tax Sale

Patrick Semansky/AP

Baltimore City lawmakers introduced a series of legislation Monday night aimed at  delaying the annual tax sale, bolstering pay for gig workers and requiring contractors doing business with the city to submit detailed employment plans.

 

Odette Ramos, a Democrat who represents North Baltimore, introduced a bill to prohibit the city from conducting the annual tax sale during the 2021 calendar year. The sale, a public auction of city liens, allows bidders to buy those liens and obtain ownership of the properties they’re attached to through tax sale foreclosure lawsuits.

 

Typically, the sale is a significant moneymaker for Baltimore: it netted around $20 million in a single day in 2019. In order to land on the tax sale, properties must accrue at least $250 in liens at places where the property owner does not live and $750 for properties that are the owner’s main residence. 

 

“I'm thinking about our legacy homeowners,” Ramos said. “These are the people that are helping us keep our neighborhoods stable right now.” 

 

The council passed a bill sponsored by Councilwoman Danielle McCray last year that prohibits the city from putting homes owned by people who are over the age of 65, low-income or who have disabilities into the tax sale — but it does not go into effect until August. The tax sale is currently scheduled for May.

 

Ramos said she has constituents, including an 85-year-old man, who have lost income due to the coronavirus pandemic and face the prospect of becoming homeless should the city hold the tax sale this year.

 

“Why are we putting an 85-year-old through this? What happens when they lose their home?” Ramos said. “They end up being either homeless or they're living with other family members and trying to get their life back together, and that is a financial burden to the city.”

 

Though the bill has the support of many of Ramos’ colleagues, it faces significant legal hurdles. Ramos said it received an unfavorable recommendation from the Baltimore City Law Department; an opinion cited laws that say that only the collector of the sale — the Mayor and the Director of Finance — have the authority to reschedule or cancel it.

 

Ramos said she will ask Mayor Brandon Scott and Director Henry Raymond to move the tax sale, pointing to former mayor Jack Young’s decision to move last year’s sale from May to July.

 

“There’s still an opportunity for the Mayor and the Director of Finance to move the tax sale, understanding that we're in the middle COVID with people who are in a really tough spot financially,” she said.

 

A spokeswoman for Scott said the Democrat has directed agencies to review how many owner-occupied properties are slated for this year’s tax sale. 

 

“He is exploring what options the city has within its legal authority and will make a determination based off that evidence,” Stefanie Mavronis said. “The mayor was supportive of Councilwoman McCray’s legislation last term, which exempted older adults and low-income residents from tax sale.”

 

Councilman Ryan Dorsey of Northeast Baltimore introduced a bill to bolster pay for gig workers with delivery companies such as GrubHub. Dorsey framed the legislation as the flip side of the same coin to a recent law that halved the service fees delivery companies charge restaurants to deliver their food. 

 

 

“This actually addresses the gig workers themselves, the people who are being exploited,” Dorsey said, noting that these workers occupy a “weird, nebulous zone” as independent contractors who are not formal employees of on-demand companies.

 

“We have workers that are going out with no assurance that they will be fairly compensated for their time or for the use of their personal property in order to perform this work,” he said.

 

Based on legislation in Seattle, the bill would require companies to pay gig workers a certain amount of money for every pick-up or drop-off delivery point they service: $2.50 for the first point, and $1.25 for each additional point. 

 

Dorsey’s bill goes one stop farther by requiring companies to compensate workers with mileage reimbursements for their travel throughout the city to pick-up and drop-off points, based on rates established by the IRS. The 2021 standard rate is 56 cents per mile.

 

“It would be much fairer to put the burden where it belongs, to put it on the companies,” he said.

 

The bill also would ban companies from reducing gig workers’ pay or hours. 

 

Unlike the law that halved service fees for restaurants, the bill would extend beyond Gov. Larry Hogan’s ongoing state of emergency tied to the coronavirus pandemic. 

 

“This is an example of sort of a problem that already existed that was just exacerbated and brought to light by COVID,” Dorsey said.

 

Council President Nick Mosby and Councilman Robert Stokes, both Democrats, introduced a bill that would require contractors to submit employment plans in their bids on government-assisted construction projects totaling $5 million or more. 

 

Those plans, the bill says, must include strategies to ensure that at least 50% of a project’s workforce are socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.

 

“It’s more important than ever that we bring jobs back to Baltimore City residents,” Stokes said. “This bill ensures that the city supports local hiring, especially for our residents experiencing social and economic hardships.”

 

Winning bidders would be required to submit a revised employment plan to the city that specifies strategies to hire graduates of the Baltimore City Public Schools and create outreach partnerships with the University of Baltimore, Baltimore City Community College, the Mayor’s Office of Employment Development and other government-approved job training providers.

 

Emily Sullivan is a city hall reporter at WYPR, where she covers all things Baltimore politics. She joined WYPR after reporting for NPR’s national airwaves. There, she was a reporter for NPR’s news desk, business desk and presidential conflicts of interest team. Sullivan won a national Edward R. Murrow Award for an investigation into a Trump golf course's finances alongside members of the Embedded team. She has also won awards from the Chesapeake Associated Press Broadcasters Association for her use of sound and feature stories. She has provided news analysis on 1A, The Takeaway, Here & Now and All Things Considered.