Baltimore City Council is moving forward on legislation to tax vacant properties at a higher rate than occupied ones, the latest strategy rolled out in recent weeks to combat the city’s thousands of abandoned buildings.

Council President Nick Mosby, a Democrat, introduced the plan Monday, the last day current council members could do so with enough time to pass it before a new council is sworn in in December. The bill is backed by every council member.

“We will get it done before this term is up,” said Mosby, who will leave office next month.

The plan, which also has the backing of Democratic Mayor Brandon Scott, would set the property tax rate on vacant properties at triple the current level for the first year it is in effect and then quadruple the current rate in subsequent years.

The current rate is $2.248 per $100 of assessed value. The increased rates would not take effect until the budget year beginning July 1, 2026, and a future City Council would have to decide whether to reenact the legislation by July 1, 2029 or the tax plan would expire.

Monday’s legislation, which was unexpected, comes on the heels of major initiatives launched in recent weeks to reduce the roughly 13,000 vacant properties in the city. Scott introduced legislation last week to create a special financing plan to rehabilitate vacant homes. Democratic Gov. Wes Moore, a day later, came to town to sign an executive order allowing the state to take additional actions with a goal of eliminating 5,000 vacants in five years.

Scott, in a statement, praised the council for its work and said he was thrilled to see this legislation move forward in the current term.

“By improving the way we tax these properties, we can better take on the challenge of remediating these vacants through our overall vision to end vacants in Baltimore,” Scott said.

Councilwoman Odette Ramos, also a Democrat, had long championed a vacant property tax rate as a way for the city to gain control of more abandoned properties, which would in turn make them easier to redevelop. Initially, Ramos was skeptical the tax plan could be done before the current council’s term ended. But in a phone interview, she said the events of the last week catalyzed her colleagues.

“I think that might’ve been the impetus to just move forward,” she said.

Ramos estimates under the tax bill that hundreds of homes could come into city control every year once the special rates go into effect.

Council was able to introduce the bill after the General Assembly passed a law earlier this year allowing local jurisdictions to tax vacant buildings at higher rates. Sen. Antonio Hayes and Del. Regina Boyce, both Baltimore Democrats, had lobbied fellow lawmakers for years and were ultimately successful this past session. That bill was one of Scott’s top legislative priorities in Annapolis.

The Baltimore County Council passed its own version of a tax hike on vacants last month.

Baltimore Banner reporter Hallie Miller contributed to this story.