Isaac "Yitzy" Schleifer
City Council District 5
About
Isaac “Yitzy” Schleifer is the Councilman for the 5th District of Baltimore City.
Councilman Schleifer is a lifelong resident of the 5th District and currently serving on the City Council since 2016. Councilman Schleifer is the Chair of the Rules and Legislative Oversight Committee and serves on both the Health, Environment, and Technology Committee and the Ways and Means Committee.
Councilman Schleifer VOTES NO on the Homestead Property Tax Cap Increase:
Today, the Budget Committee and full City Council advanced Bill 26-0151, which increases Baltimore City’s Homestead Property Tax Cap from 4% to 5%.
For years, the Homestead Tax Credit protected homeowners by limiting how much their taxable assessment could increase each year. Raising the cap to 5% means thousands of homeowners could face larger property tax increases year after year. Meanwhile, Baltimore County continues to maintain a 4% cap.
The Finance Department argues that future property tax reductions included in the City’s 10-Year Financial Plan will offset many of these increases, but why should taxpayers trust promises of future tax relief when the administration has already abandoned the very first tax cut promised in that plan?
This year’s scheduled 2 cent property tax reduction was removed from the budget despite hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue and spending. The city could have easily found the $4 million needed to provide that tax relief.
Taxpayers should not be asked to pay more in perpetuity based on promises that may never be delivered tomorrow.
I successfully fought to reduce the original proposal from 6% to 5%, but I also introduced an amendment to protect homeowners from another broken promise.
My amendment would have automatically ended the higher cap after four years unless a future City Council voted to continue it. That would have forced future administrations to justify the increase and demonstrate progress on the promised property tax reductions.
Baltimore residents deserve real tax relief, not a system where some homeowners receive a small tax break, while longtime residents, especially seniors who have lived in their homes for decades, risk being hit with significant tax increases.
We should be lowering property taxes, not increasing homeowners’ exposure to higher tax bills. ... See MoreSee Less
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Thank you Councilman...I will be anxious to see the who voted yes and no.
Thank you Councilman. I’m surprised that the council would do this to the citizens of Baltimore. Where is Zeke on this?
Raise the cap while lowering the rate by a PENNY. Everyone should appeal their assessments going forward.
Who is looking out for Baltimore City Residents.??
Seems as though the Board goes along to just get along!!!
It's Ridiculous and Sad....where is the common sense on that...city residents always suffer...thought Bill Henry was supposed to be on helping Citizens, that's one of the promises he ran on...What happened 🤔
This council continues to fail over 62 citizens With an increase like this I’ll have to start considering leaving the city Makes me sad, I’ve lived here all 67 years of my life
When you vote Democrat, this is what you vote for. Bigger Govt, higher taxes and fees.
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“The city’s outstanding debt equals 8.9% of its assessable property tax base — roughly double the statewide average and one of the highest ratios in Maryland.” ... See MoreSee Less
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Im sure the Lazurus Right can chip in and help. Rumor has it they have some of our taxpayer money....
Umh no! Rebalance the budgets to align with the inflation and children born from legislation supported from 1965 until 2026. 🎤🫳🚶♀️✌🏼
An y’all going continue letting them raise taxes on the low income people of Baltimore city an let them talk bout the crime rate is low when just the pass weekend multiple shoots an couple people died resulting in some of them shooting. Way of life crimes are thru the roof. Got more people then ever moving out the city. Downtown looks like zombie land right buy the supposed been the new an improved Lexington market where before the vendors took ebt. But now they don’t. This whole administration been a disaster. It’s time for new leadership from the governor, mayor, police commissioner, schools board head etc. Money coming in but it’s too many hands in the cookie jar. It’s starting too show on the city a people of the cities faces.
Councilman Isaac Yitzy Schleifer Thomas Massie said Israel bombed the us in 1967 how do you stand being Jewish American sir
What does everyone think about Baltimore City permitting?
Here is the Baltimore City Department of Housing & Community Development permit office budget slide with their performance measures.
Are permits moving faster or slower?
What’s working?
What still needs to be fixed? ... See MoreSee Less
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Personally I think permits is one of the worst processes we have for the amount of projects we have happening daily in the city. They say it’s a 3-6 month turn around time which is a very big window. It doesn’t matter if it’s a resident or an actual city agency applying. 3 months compared to 6 months is wild. Then when you compare it to other MD counties they’re spitting out permits in a few weeks-1 month. I get they’re smaller and have less projects but the overall process could probably be made more efficient. The follow up from people reviewing the permits is lacking as well. I had a permit issued for a playground and no one reached out to say hey it’s ready it was radio silence. I just had to dig around on the Accela portal until I found it. The only reason I found it is because my husband works for Planning and knows how to use Accela & I used to work for the city and am familiar but residents and people who aren’t computer savvy would never find what they need. Sorry for the rant it’s just something I’m actively dealing with 😔
As a Councilmember what’s your plans to address this?
Streamline the types of permits required and the steps. Some postcard permit types should just be done with or allow it to be filled prior by a licensed company and filled out later.
I feel like maybe being less mean would go a long way. And it’s free!!
I am on a working group trying to provide constructive feedback. If you truly want to be a part of the solution, please send me a message and I'll invite you to our next monthly meeting.
Permits take about 100 days on average for our buisness
It doesn’t make sense to move everything online and still have large numbers of people still coming to the counter
These are the performance metrics? This is it? Where are the metrics that show long the average permitting process takes? Where are the metrics on the number of permits administered per employee? How many permits take more than 60-90 days? There’s not much on their slide. Do they have more slides?
The absolute worst thing
It is so atrocious, it essentially an illegal taking of property! Recently reported was a story about a property owner waiting three years for a permit. Isn't that an illegal taking of property for three years? shouldn't the owner be compensated due to not being able to do anything with his property for three years? While that is a story that made the paper it is not the only story of taking three years. We had an approved permit that expired while we were negotiating with out contractor. It took over three months to approve a new permit for the exact work that was already approved. How many tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in economic activity are delayed due to city incompetence. It is not just the permit dept. Try getting a response from the water dept, the tax sale dept, the finance dept. the law dept. the property transfer dept etc.
The people who work at DHCD are incompetent 1 and don’t know their own laws 2. Of course nothing gets done when 2 people in the same office say different things. We need people who actually know what they are doing in these offices so it can grow.
Horrible. And these metrics are a joke.
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At the Baltimore Recnparks budget hearing, Director Moore admitted his agency stopped requiring stump removal when trees are taken down despite prior commitments that every tree removal contract would include stump removal.
The predictable result? Baltimore now has an even larger backlog of dangerous and unsightly tree stumps than when this issue was first raised years ago.
Even more concerning, the agency’s proposed “solution” is to maybe include stump removal in a future FY2028 contract. By then, there’s no telling how much worse this backlog will become.
This is a basic management failure and a clear lack of leadership.
The fix is simple: amend the CURRENT contract to require stump removals now, and find the money within the existing budget to clean up the bloated backlog created on Director Moore’s watch.
Baltimore residents should not have to wait years for the City to address a problem the City itself created. ... See MoreSee Less
29 CommentsComment on Facebook
Ask Moore why he hired a convicted felon from Atlanta as the athletic director for youth activities at over 51 rec centers.
We have a stump they left in the street crazy drive around
Very Creative Also Correct Maybe Some Of The Constituents Who Say You Only Take Care Of Only Certain Constituents Should Take A Closer Look Keep On The Stump
So why don’t you take leadership leaders lead not complain
“Find the money” is a kinda wild directive. Where do you suggest the money come from?
Put a sign on each stump - FOR SALE $20 and people will steal them!
You can't gather a team of volunteers to help remove the stumps? I'm pretty certain home Depot would gladly donate some equipment to use for clean up and take it back afterwards. Roll up your sleeves like a leader and see who follows.
Here’s an idea community service for crimes committed by kids 12-17 years old. Do the crime pick up this stump
That’s a lot of dead wood.
I’m sure the environment has greatly benefited from the wealth of species the old stumps provide. Ask your Sierra Club endorser and the Audubon club how they view the removal of old stumps.
If baltimore city has any chance to survive only YITZY can do it
Rather have that money directed at ivy removal off trees first. Likely the culprit for the tree’s demise in the first place. But I see the city contract is more concerned with using leaf blower to push grass/litter into the storm drains than remove invasive plants. Our tree canopy is as huge risk.
This is but one issue with the Department of Recreation and Parks. Should we have the Recreation Advisory Board enacted and an evaluation of the structure and salaries and an audit we may find more. And here we are, a finalist for the Gold Plaque award based on recreation centers development.
Enjoy your democratic city.
Yea- this was a major problem. The contractor told me they’d remove the stump for $2k. Talk about a racket. And perhaps the powers that be can plant appropriate size trees that won’t take over the neighborhood. Maybe some cherry or apple so there will be nice blossoms and maybe some fruit. The Maple trees and monstrosities that some morons planted years ago show a clear pattern of government stupidity and poor planning. Kind of like what we are experiencing now.
This is wild people are focused on “stumps” How about: The worst roads in the nation The worst schools in the nation The 4th worst crime in the nation The entire administration is incompetent and corrupt But by all means let’s focus on the “stumps”
Yes…. I complained about trees problems for years in Baltimore City!!!
Cut down two trees up the street from me nothing wrong with them but that was 2 years ago and have not seen a truck with a stump grinder yet
Meanwhile i had to pay a private company to have the overgrown city tree trimmed in front of my house after not getting a reply from several 311 complaints and your office over a 2 year period❗️
Again, higher taxes, less services.
thank you
No excuses!
Idiots running the city
Total lack of Leadership…
Incompetence at every level
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Offering a small property tax reduction to some residents by stripping longtime homeowners of the homestead protections they were promised when they bought their homes is not real tax relief.
That’s just robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Baltimore residents deserve a clean property tax reduction with no hidden tradeoffs, no shifting the burden onto other homeowners, and no breaking promises to the people who stayed and invested in this city for decades. ... See MoreSee Less
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That is why after supporting my city volunteering for my city and being a community leader is why I am leaving. You win Baltimore and you’ve lost a good citizen.
Scott’s proposal isn’t tax relief at all. It’s musical chairs. It’s wrong.
This is yet another scam by Mayor Scott, pretending that he has the interests of long term City property owners. I guess Zeke Cohen is looking to join the deceit.