"Tax Broke" Free Screening @ The Charles Theater

For decades, Baltimore has struggled to grow, hamstrung by a property tax rate twice the surrounding counties. The unequal burden has prompted the city to pursue a risky strategy of effectively paying developers to build.

Using incentives with innocuous sounding acronyms like TIFs and PILOTs, new construction in the city has occurred largely at the expense of the city’s working class. Meanwhile, despite the promises that incentives would reverse the city’s decline, Baltimore continues to lose population.

How did we get here? Why is Baltimore the only jurisdiction in the state that must pay for development? And is there a better way to grow a city?

These are just a few of the questions that Tax Broke, the latest investigative documentary produced by The Real News Network, seeks to answer. The film—five years in the making—explores the history of the city’s fraught relationship with artificially imposed boundaries, codified segregation, and finally a political economy fueled by hundreds of millions of dollars in tax incentives doled out behind closed doors.

Join Director Stephen Janis, Producer Taya Graham, Contributor Jayne Miller at The Charles Theater for a screening and a panel discussion as we explore ways to chart a more equitable and effective path to growth for Baltimore.

Please RSVP as seating is limited to capacity.