Baltimore Mayor backs ballot initiative to fund newborn families with cash assistance
Mayor Brandon Scott is supporting a city charter amendment that would create a permanent fund to provide cash payments and supplies to parents of newborns, pending voter approval in November.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott has thrown his support behind a charter amendment that would establish a permanent municipal fund for newborn families, known as the Baltimore Baby Fund. The measure, now qualified for the November ballot after gathering the required signatures and undergoing structural revisions, would earmark three cents per $100 of assessed property value for the fund. The City Council would retain authority to define eligibility criteria and disbursement mechanisms through future legislation.
The proposal is patterned after Flint, Michigan’s Rx Kids program, which provides cash assistance to expectant mothers and infants. It builds on Scott’s prior guaranteed-income experiment, the Baltimore Young Families Success Fund, which operated from August 2022 to July 2024 and showed benefits such as reduced food insecurity and increased educational attainment. The mayor and the campaign released a joint statement on Instagram outlining their collaboration, but neither side responded to requests for comment.
Why it matters
The vote will decide whether Baltimore creates a permanent tax-funded cash program for newborn families, potentially shaping local anti-poverty policy.
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