Aerial view of Baltimore City (WBFF)
BALTIMORE (WBFF) —Even as Baltimore faces mounting financial pressure, city employees have continued traveling to conferences and seminars in places such as Hong Kong, Amsterdam and Las Vegas — trips that have cost taxpayers $1.5 million so far this year.
Taxpayer advocate David Williams criticized the spending, pointing in part to lodging costs.
“You have people spending $500 on hotels when they should be spending only a quarter that amount,” Williams said.
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The travel spending comes as outside groups sound the alarm about Baltimore’s financial health. The nonprofit Truth in Accounting recently gave the city a grade of “D,” citing what it described as a failure to manage a $3 billion budget gap.
“In order to get the city debt free each taxpayer would need to send $14,000 just to get them back to zero,” Truth in Accounting founder Sheila Weinberg said.
This month, auditors at the Reason Foundation — which audited every major city in the country — gave Baltimore five red flags of concern, placing it among the few cities with a high level of financial stress.
“The city has $3 billion in debt that they have no idea how they’re going to pay,” Weinberg said.
Williams argued the city should rein in spending, starting with travel.
“The city needs to be more fiscally responsible and the first place to start is with travel,” Williams said.
Williams predicted that if spending does not slow, taxpayers will ultimately bear the cost.
“The problem is the city can’t keep spending this money. The city will go broke and there will be dire consequences for this,” Williams said.
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