Speed camera money promised for traffic safety transferred to police department
Baltimore City officials on Wednesday approved the accounting of tens of millions of dollars in COVID-19 spending, but it wasn't without controversy.
Early in the pandemic, city officials decided to provide premium pay to first responders, such as police officers, firefighters and others working the front-line.
"There was a lot of risk in the early days of the pandemic. Some of our employees who were dealing directly with the public were at risk and we felt it was the right thing to do," said Robert Cenname, the city's budget director .
To help cover the bill for police officers, the city proposed taking $6.5 million from the revenue raised by speed and red-light cameras and transfer it to the police department. Pedestrian safety advocates objected, arguing state law intends for that revenue to be used to slow down cars.
"Many community members are already skeptical of cameras, and this reallocation endorses the fear (that) cameras are used purely for revenue and not to finance permanent improvements to our roadways," said Jed Week, of Bikemore.
The Board of Estimates approved the transfer. The budget director said there were few alternatives to cover the bill.
The board also approved the accounting of $120 million in spending for pandemic-related costs, most of which is covered by federal funding. It included $37.8 million for the use of hotels to shelter and quarantine people, $10.2 million for emergency food services and $8.9 million for contact tracing and testing.
There was also $2.5 million to cover costs related to the city-owned Hilton hotel. It's evidence the city budget director said of the continuing impact of the pandemic on tourism.
"The delta variant is kind of extending this pandemic, so we are not seeing the recovery we had expected from tourism," Cenname said.
The city closed out the books on the last fiscal year in better shape than expected, and the police department -- for the first time in a long time -- stayed within the budget on overtime costs of $32 million versus $50 million the year before, according to the budget director.
