‘We intend to get every last dollar’: Baltimore cracks down on uncollected revenue
A May audit revealed the City failed to collect more than $40 million from fiscal years 2023 through 2025.
Baltimore’s Department of Finance has recovered $14.5 million in unpaid bills after acity audit revealed $48 million in uncollected revenue from fiscal years 2023 through 2025.
“We intend to get every last dollar,” Michael Mocksten, Baltimore’s director of finance, said during a Board of Estimates meeting Wednesday.
The department has recovered $14.5 million since May, with $1.4 million coming from new collections and the remainder from administrative cleanup.
“We have completed all of our stated corrective actions on time, the ones that we promised to do by this date,” said Yoanna Moisides, deputy director of finance.
City Council President Zeke Cohen expressed concerns about financial management, saying, “One of the concerns that I’ve had and that the City Council has had is around lax financial management.”
The Department of Finance has implemented measures to improve tracking of delinquent accounts, referring outstanding bills to the law department for the first time.
In June, the Bureau of Collections sent out 1,100 final bill and legal notices tied to $15 million in unpaid invoices.
“We as a city need better controls on what we are tracking as owed to us,” Mocksten said.
Cohen emphasized the importance of accountability, .
“We cannot have a situation someone is able to not pay their bill for an extended period of time and ultimately there’s not consequence, otherwise we are essentially incentivizing people to not pay bills.”
Finance department leaders highlighted improvements in staffing, procedures, and systems.
The City Council President acknowledged the progress but noted there is still work to be done.
“I do appreciate improvements that the Department of Finance made between when we heard this audit back in May and today, but I think we still have a long way to go in standardizing across agencies how we bill and how we collect all of our revenue,” Cohen said.
The department plans to submit a report to the City Auditor by mid-September detailing its progress.
Officials said Baltimore has collected 98% of all revenues, a rate near the top among cities nationwide. However, the city still needs to collect more than $33.8 million.
Baltimore audit reveals $40M in unpaid bills as city vows to fix collection failures
Baltimore audit reveals millions in unpaid bills, sparking frustration among city leaders
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