May 11, 2025 Newsletter
Happy Sunday, Ward One
And happy Mothers’ Day! Thanks to Jack Turner for the above picture from my campaign launch, which is one of my favorites I have with my mom. She’s out of town today for a concert, so we’re doing brunch next weekend to celebrate.
I’m also celebrating the Finance Committee’s completion of our report for the full council about the FY26 budget, including our proposed changes. I’ll have more to talk about as the council works through amendments over the next couple weeks, but below you can see my deeper thoughts on what truly underlies the city budget, how that ties into the president’s trade policy, and even a fun economics cartoon.
Here are the top 3 things you need to know in Annapolis:
Come testify about the need for better maintenance at the city council’s public hearing tomorrow on the budget. Your stories about tripping on brick sidewalks or driving on the same busted up road for years will help me convince my colleagues that we need to make cuts elsewhere to focus on these commonsense issues.
Next week is Commissioning Week, drawing thousands of visitors to Annapolis. The Blue Angels will have flyovers on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday. Expect some traffic delays, especially when VP Vance gives his address on Friday.
I’m introducing my first ordinance, to make it possible for the city to clear sidewalks of snow when property owners don’t and charge the owners for it.
Updates from Harry
I’m fresh off three long weeks of budget hearings and deliberations, and I keep coming back to an underlying question: Where does the money come from?
Here’s one answer:
This chart shows you the breakdown of the city’s general fund revenues, about $115 million in the mayor’s proposed FY26 budget. You can see that the vast majority comes from “taxes and excise” which itself is overwhelmingly property taxes.
There are a couple reasons this chart isn’t as useful as it could be. First, we’re only looking at the general fund. If it were expanded to include the enterprise funds (water, trash, etc), then “Charges for Services” would become a much bigger slice of the pie. It also doesn’t include grants, which are recorded as parts of their own “grant funds”. And about half of the “Intergovernmental” slice is income taxes which the county collects for the city, so I think it would be better to include that in the “Taxes and Excise” slice.
The takeaway is this: By far the biggest funder of city government is property tax revenue.
But let’s take it one level deeper: What causes our property to have value and people to be able to pay those taxes on it?
It’s either income from labor or income from capital: salaries or profits. (We could throw in a third category of income from government, but this is already getting complicated enough.) People use that income to buy their property and pay the taxes on it.
In Annapolis, those profits and salaries come from heritage tourism, from locals dining at restaurants, from nonprofits that choose to headquarter here, from our maritime industries, and more. Those enterprises are the direct answer to why people value our land and how they get money to pay taxes on it. It’s what we typically think of as our local economy.
Alright, one more level of depth: Where did the money to pay the salaries originally come from? At the national scale (or arguably city scale), the wealth in salaries is a reflection of wealth created through production. Put another way, nations are wealthy when they can produce more useful goods and services.
This is the key insight of Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, which completely shifted the field of economics away from mercantilism, a previous school of thought in which countries basically tried to hoard gold. You can see the concept humorously explained in this comic panel (click here to view a larger version).
Asking these questions is not just a meditative exercise on city budget philosophy but very relevant to national trade policy. The president recently said in a “Meet the Press” interview: “We were losing hundreds of billions of dollars with China. Now we’re essentially not doing business with China, therefore we’re saving hundreds of billions of dollars. It’s very simple.” This is just plain incorrect, but it demonstrates that the president sees things through the mercantilist viewpoint.
He understands trade policy as zero sum in a way that will ultimately harm our ability to produce both the important (medication) and the fun (dolls). If the president continues down this path of following debunked mercantilist views, it will have real impacts on city government—from higher costs to replace sewer pipes to lower salaries and property values.
To fully tie local, international, and state together, I want to end with a line from Governor Moore’s State of the State He said then and has said many times since that in thinking about the economy: “Growth will continue to be our north star.”
I think this is a very apt metaphor. We’re not going to a star; growth is not our destination. Happy people are the destination, but smart growth will guide us there, like the North Star has led so many people to better lives. Growing the city’s economy by truly increasing our productive capacity will provide the fuel for building even more vibrant communities, providing excellent city services, and ensuring everyone gets a fair chance at living with dignity.
As I’ve been working through the city budget, your happiness is my top priority. That requires fiscal discipline to live within the means we have. And it requires a thoughtful approach to driving economic growth in ways that genuinely increase our productive capacity, put more money in residents pockets, and strengthen our tax base.
This week and every week, I’m grateful for the honor of representing you and our whole community. Never hesitate to contact me at harry@harrymhuntley.com.
City Council Agenda
Call To Order
Mayor Buckley
Invocation
Alderwoman Schandelmeier
Pledge of Allegiance
Mayor Buckley
Roll Call
City Clerk Watkins-Eldridge
Approval of Agenda
Update from Mayor
Mayor Buckley
Reports by Committee
Comments by the General Public
Remember, you can come to any city council meeting to tell us about what’s important to you and your neighborhood!
Consent Calendar
Public Hearings
O-10-25 Annual Budget and Appropriation and Property Tax Levy -
This is the budget. If you’ve heard me say it once, you’ve heard a thousand times: My top priority is to rebalance it towards commonsense maintenance. This is your opportunity to come to the council meeting and share your budget priorities. It would really help me advocate for fixing our brick sidewalks to my colleagues if you can come and say a few words about why this is such a need.
Ordinance First Readers
O-6-25 Clearing Snow and Ice from City Sidewalks
This legislation, my first ordinance to be introduced, was inspired by our big snow storm. So many people said to me then “Why isn’t the city ticketing people who don’t shovel their walk?” and I told them that the truth is that many of those properties did get citations, but a citation doesn’t clear the snow. This legislation would allow the city to clear a sidewalk of snow after issuing a citation and then charge the property owner for the cost. It has a provision for the Public Works Director to waive that charge in compelling circumstances. You wouldn’t think that such a simple change would take three months to get on the agenda, but it did. It’s good to be deliberative, but our legislative process has too many steps that slow it down, as evidenced by legislating about snow in June.
O-8-25 Chesapeake Children’s Museum Lease Renewal Through June 30, 2030
The Chesapeake Children’s Museum is a valued member of our community, and they’re located on city land. This would extend their lease, now that they’ve worked through some issues for it with the Office of Law. I’m looking forward to getting all our leases under the new Department of Central Services.
O-12-25 Prioritizing Affordable Spending Through Expansion of Financial Advisory Commission Duties
Well, that’s a heck of a good name for a bill! It’s hard to argue against the goal of this legislation that requires a spending affordability study to be completed. But in practice I’m worried about how this would be implemented by the financial advisory commission, if the cost is worth it, and duplicating efforts better suited to the Director of Finance. I’m going to vote to introduce this so it can be discussed, but I’m skeptical.
O-13-25 Compensation of Mayor, Alderpersons, and City Manager
This ordinance would actually change salaries to be in line with the Salary Review Commission’s recommendations. I have been clear that I do not support raising the city council's salaries beyond a cost of living adjustment. This is what I told the Commission, and it continues to be my position. I physically cannot work any harder for you, no matter how much more I'm paid. I would much rather any funds that could go towards raising the council's pay be spent on additional staff that would allow me to be more responsive to your concerns and to conduct more vigorous oversight and follow-through of legislation. I think also that taking this from a 30+ hour a week job down to a 15-20 hour a week job (via staff support) would expand the pool of people willing to run for the council and ultimately lead to us all having better representation. The city manager salary recommendation is in line with the Classification and Compensation study that examined the pay for that position across other jurisdictions. The recommendation for the mayor also seems fairly modest to me relative what a person competent enough to be mayor could command working fulltime in the private sector. I do not intend to support this, unless the city council changes are amended out entirely or decreased to just a cost of living adjustment.
O-14-25 Implementation of Annapolis Ahead Comprehensive Plan, 2040
This is a pretty technical piece of legislation to update a couple parts of the zoning code to be in line with the Comprehensive Plan. I don’t have a fully developed opinion on the legislation as a whole yet, so I’m just going to share the staff description of the legislation’s four parts:
In the Planned Development Chapter (21.24), the amendments would revise the purpose statements and approving criteria for planned development by linking them to the Comp. Plan’s goals and community benefits, increase the share of a planned development that may be devoted to a mix of land uses, allow for increases in the number of housing units in certain planned developments; revise the definition of common open space and expand the percentage of such space in developments.
In the Residential Districts Chapter (21.40), the amendments would more strictly define how to compute the size of a house in the R2-NC district, which would also require revisions in the Terms and Definition Chapter (21.72) to update the definitions of "Floor area" and "Half Story". These changes clarify code and streamline the application of what is known as the 3,250 Rule – a rule that requires houses projects over 3,250 square feet in size (in the R2-NC) to obtain Planning Commission approval.
In Heights and Bulk Limits Chapter (21.56) the amendments would update what appurtenances and types of rooftop structures are allowed to project above maximum height limits and set specific standards therefore. This addresses the practical difficulties in newly constructing permitted land use types on lots fronting the approved City Dock Park, east of Craig Street, and more specifically the reality that modern building and architectural practices can deliver eco-friendly green roofs and place mechanical equipment therein to protect the architectural integrity of building facades and minimize HVAC noise to pedestrians and neighboring properties.
In Parking and Loading Regulation Chapter (21.66), the amendments would clarify that the off-street parking exception in the C2 and C2A district is applicable to all building sizes, not just those under 20,000 square feet in size. This addresses the goal of promoting walkability, accommodating parking in designated garage locations, and making more fiscally prudent use of available land zoned for development.
Resolution First Readers
R-22-25 City Sponsored Special Events in Fiscal Year 2026
This waives some or all fees for a litany of events we love in the city, from the St Patrick’s Day parade to the Grand Illumination at Christmas to the Pride Festival. This is a way for the city to support these celebrations that make our community more vibrant. Separate from this legislation, we have been working through some issues with the Holiday Market, so that should be addressed before this is passed. The total revenue forfeited from these events is approximately $100,284.
R-24-25 Confirmation of Human Resources and Integrated Technology Solutions Directors
Tricia Hopkins and Brian Paquin became Directors when the Council passed legislation making the the HR & ITS offices into departments. The City Code says the Council must confirm all Directors, so we’re doing that.
Resolution Second Readers
R-2-25 Demonstration Program to Build Green Roofs on City Bus Shelters
This resolution requires the City Manager to establish a demonstration program to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of green roof bus shelters and to include them in the FY2026 City budget. I like green roofs as much as the next guy--probably a lot more, considering my horticulture background. But this is the kind of thing that I want to rebalance our city budget away from; we need to focus more on maintaining our sidewalks and less on (admittedly, very cool-sounding!) new projects like bus stop green roofs. The Environmental Commission had some reservations, and I’ve heard from a leading environmentalist in the ward that it’s just not the best use of funds. So, I do not intend to support this resolution.
R-38-24 Condemnation and Possession of Real Property at 245 West Street
I brought this resolution forward right after joining the council, and it has succeeded in its goal of bringing the owners of the derelict gas station to the table to sell it to a local who wants to invest in the property. You can see the news story about it here. So, the council is going to vote this down because it’s no longer needed.
Adjournment
Other news you can use
The Pride of Baltimore is in town until tomorrow. See it down at City Dock.
On Thursday, a new inn, 86 State Circle, will open, after years of loving restoration and renovations.
Tomorrow will be a Police Unity Tour at 126 West Street and various locations around the City of Annapolis from 9am to 11am
The Annapolis Vet Center Open House is Tuesday at 100 Annapolis Street (road closure on Giddings Avenue) from 8:30am to 1:30pm.
Next week is Commissioning Week. Read all about the schedule here. Wednesday is the Herndon Climb, and you can watch a livestream here.
If you’re interested in walking with the campaign in the Pride Parade on May 31, please send me a quick reply with your shirt size.
Please send me any events or other information you’d like advertised to your neighbors.
Have a great week, everyone!
Harry
