Baltimore’s finances are in a bad way. Despite assurances from the mayor that the city’s $4.1 billion budget for fiscal year 2025 is balanced, this misleading message masks a dismal reality. As fiscal watchdog Truth in Accounting notes in its 2024 “Financial State of the Cities” report, “Baltimore would need $14,100 from each of its taxpayers to pay all of its outstanding bills” because of wayward pension promises and misguided spending priorities.

It certainly doesn’t help that Baltimore has been doling out money to poorly run nonprofits without an iota of accountability. Taxpayer dollars are thrust into the hands of directors earning six figures with few questions asked and no metrics for success. Baltimore must end this fiscal fiasco and give taxpayers their hard-earned money back.

Like many financial foibles, the Baltimore Children and Youth Fund (BCYF) had an admirable start.

Efforts to set up the fund began in 2015 following the tragic death of Freddie Gray while in police custody. The idea was to harness funding to address the societal inequities that gave rise to civil strife and conflict with the law.

The Baltimore City Council quickly got on board. The council greenlit the creation of the fund through a charter amendment sent to the ballot and approved by voters in November 2016.

The terms of the amendment were straightforward. For every $100 of assessed or assessable value of all property, the BCYF was to receive an annual taxpayer stipend of at least 3 cents.

Unfortunately, tracking program success and accountability was anything but straightforward. According to a recent FOX45 investigation, the fund is not subject to city auditing and has not had its books scrutinized since 2019.

That’s a problem, especially because the organization’s structure has changed significantly since 2019. As Fox contributor Julian Baron notes, “The fund is no longer administered by Associated Black Charities. Instead, an independent nonprofit was created to oversee the flow of grant money. The fund began hiring permanent administrative staff in 2022, according to its website.”

These well-paid administrators are tasked with allocating roughly $15 million in annual taxpayer funding to other organizations.

Those organizations have likewise not been properly vetted by the city. For example, the Baltimore Urban Baseball Association (BUBA) was a top BCYF grantee in 2024, receiving $250,000 in taxpayer funds.

A quick visit to their website reveals that they are far more than a rec league or support group for struggling families looking for extracurriculars. BUBA is using taxpayer money for “state-of-the-art batting cages, hi-tech hit-trax simulators … and personalized private instruction.” Taxpayers have the right to know whether this money is being spent efficiently or squandered on pricey toys. This description points to the latter.

The fund may even be running afoul of the First Amendment, which prohibits the government from “establishing” or directly backing a religion.

According to BCYF’s website and the organization’s filings, the fund has donated $425,000 over the 2022-2024 period to Imagine Me Ministries and the Islamic Leadership Institute of America. While churches and mosques can be funded indirectly (e.g., through school vouchers) for a nonreligious purpose such as education, giving open-ended grants to organizations “dedicated to spreading the love of Jesus Christ” and that “follow the Islamic creed, jurisprudence and etiquettes” rightly raises eyebrows.

Unfortunately, taxpayers are unlikely to get answers on these organizations and programs anytime soon. BCYF insists that it provides financial statement audits on requests, but conveniently dodges any call for a performance audit or detailed explanation of their grant decisions.

This is just the tip of the iceberg for Baltimore’s deeply dysfunctional grantmaking system. According to a 2023 investigation by Open the Books, local nonprofit Visit Baltimore has “spent city, federal and state taxpayer money of nearly $100 million, yet not a single added tourist has come to the community.

In 2018 there were was 26.7 million tourists and in 2022, the latest year, there was 26.7 million tourists.” Even worse, 23 of the top 100 nonprofit recipients of city taxpayer dollars are not in good standing with the state of Maryland due to financial registration issues.

Charm City politicians can bolster accountability by reevaluating Baltimore’s grant process and subjecting all grantees to regular and rigorous performance and accounting audits.

There is a better way forward for Baltimore than the lousy status quo. With countless millions of taxpayer dollars in federal relief money slated to be sent to nonprofits in the coming years, this accountability problem has just begun.

David Williams is the president of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance.