Members of the Baltimore City Council voted Tuesday to advance a proposal that would set a new, higher property tax rate on vacant and abandoned houses, a first step toward cementing the bill into law.

If passed by the rest of the council, the special tax rate could take effect as early as July 2026, bill co-sponsors Odette Ramos and Eric Costello said at a Tuesday committee hearing in City Hall. The bill received unanimous co-sponsorship by every member of the council when it was introduced earlier this month, a rarity relative to most pieces of legislation that move through City Hall.

Long eyed as a potential tool to reduce vacancy across Baltimore, the tax rate proposal has spent years in the making. State representatives in Annapolis’ Baltimore delegation tried and failed to pass enabling legislation every General Assembly session from 2021 to 2023, after an earlier unsuccessful attempt in 2010. Finally, in 2024, the authorizing legislation passed both the House of Delegates and the state Senate and was signed into law by Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, giving all of Maryland’s 23 counties and Baltimore the power to tax their vacants.

The city’s rate would be set at three times the typical rate the first tax year (6.744% per every $100 of assessed value) and four times the standard rate every tax year after (8.992% per $100 of assessed value). Ideally, Ramos said, the liens would grow to become so high that the city could initiate the judicial in rem foreclosure process and take possession of any homes left untouched.

Though there’s widespread agreement that the tax increase could force more action on blighted properties, some have questioned whether the proposal could drive away well-meaning investors by sanctioning them for doing difficult, and sometimes slow, work.

City Councilman Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer, one of just four committee members who were present for the vote, called Baltimore’s permitting system its “biggest challenge and failure.” He noted that delays in the city’s Department of Housing and Community Development could cause some developers to receive higher taxes through no fault of their own.

Meanwhile, City Councilman Robert Stokes, who will end his term in December, asked whether the “notice” required by the bill was enough to let property owners know of the pending tax hike.

Representatives from the city’s housing department said the office has hired a “permit liaison” who will work specifically to connect property owners with assistance. They also said the city would attach notices to water bills and building violation notices and would also work collaboratively with owners who were working in good faith to redevelop their properties on a reasonable timeline.

Despite some appeals from community members for more time to lobby for modifications to the bill, it passed committee with four affirmative votes. The bill could potentially affect more than 10,000 abandoned properties over time, according to data from the Department of Finance, and will not initially include vacant lots.