Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott says the city may have to make some tough financial decisions if federal funding under the Trump White House continues to be limited by new policies.
Baltimore, and many other cities across the country, is dealing with surprise budget gaps after the White House pulled funding and grants for things like COVID relief, education and violence prevention programs.
During a roundtable with other mayors around the country, Scott said the city is doing what it can to push back against the contraction of funds.
“We're fighting in federal court to keep a money that was, as I said before, constitutionally appropriated for our city and our residents,” Scott said. “We've had to make some changes, obviously. I had to deal with a $85 million budget gap. We were able to close that. We were still able to fully fund our YouthWorks program.”
YouthWorks is a Baltimore initiative that helps young people get summer jobs that will give them future career opportunities.
The Trump administration has cut significant funding that has already been allocated by federal agencies. Baltimore had to use $48 million from its rainy-day fund after the White House rescinded $360 million in education grants from Maryland.
The Maryland Department of Health is also dealing with the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars from canceled Department of Health and Human Services grants.
“The United States Government spends too much money on programs, contracts, and grants that do not promote the interests of the American people,” President Donald Trump wrote in a February executive order titled Radical Transparency About Wasteful Spending. “I therefore direct the heads of executive departments and agencies to take all appropriate actions to make public, to the maximum extent permitted by law and as the heads of agencies deem appropriate to promote the policies of my Administration, the complete details of every terminated program, cancelled contract, terminated grant, or any other discontinued obligation of Federal funds.”
Scott says he hopes the court challenges will restore those funds. States and universities are challenging the grant cancellations.
However, that does not keep the city safe from future reductions in spending from the federal government.
Scott said the city needs to think strategically about what may be cut.
“If the President and his administration come back with their proposed budget and have significant cuts, as I said at my State of the City, we're going to have to have real hard conversations,” Scott said.
Republicans are currently floating a budget that would significantly cut Medicaid and other social services.
