Budget Explorer · City of Baltimore

Where the money comes from, and where it goes

Comparable revenue, spending, and debt for City of Baltimore, on the same Census classification used for every city, county, and state in the Library — so the figures line up with peers rather than with the government's own budget book. Latest year: FY ending Jun 30, 2024. City of Baltimore's own FY2027 budget, in its own structure, follows below.

Audited actuals · Census classification · 570K residents

At a glance

Total revenue

$4.94B

$8,670 per resident

Total spending

$5.73B

$10,055 per resident

Spending per resident

$10,055

94th percentile of 71

Debt outstanding

$4.22B

$7,397 per resident · 82nd percentile of 70

Own-source share

57%

8th percentile of 71

Capital share

13%

35th percentile of 71

Where the money comes from

$4.94B total

Own-source revenue (taxes, charges, interest) versus aid from other governments. Utility and trust revenue are shown alongside general revenue but run on their own books.

Property tax$1.05B21%
Selective sales taxes$204M4%
Income taxes$386M8%
License & other taxes$132M3%
Federal aid$332M7%
State & local aid$1.69B34%
Charges & fees$565M11%
Interest, fines, other$339M7%
Utility revenue$241M5%

Own-source share of general revenue 57% · federal aid 7% · property tax is 59% of taxes

Where it goes

$5.73B total

Current operations plus capital outlay, grouped by Census function. Interest on debt and transfers to other governments are broken out so they are not hidden inside services.

Education$2.01B35%
General government$1.06B18%
Environment & housing$919M16%
Public safety$799M14%
Utilities (water, power, gas)$394M7%
Health & hospitals$246M4%
Culture & recreation$109M2%
Interest on debt$105M2%
Transportation$63M1%
Transfers to other governments$30M1%
Public welfare$3.4M0%

Show top functions with operating vs. capital ▸

Function	Category	Operating	Capital	Total
K-12 education	Education	$1.83B	$180M	$2.01B
General (unallocable)	General government	$531M	$185M	$715M
Sewerage	Environment & housing	$393M	$251M	$645M
Police protection	Public safety	$494M	—	$494M
Water utility	Utilities (water, power, gas)	$276M	$117M	$394M
Fire protection	Public safety	$276M	—	$276M
Health	Health & hospitals	$246M	—	$246M
Solid waste management	Environment & housing	$240M	—	$240M
Financial administration	General government	$131M	—	$131M
Central staff services	General government	$107M	—	$107M
Judicial & legal	General government	$96M	—	$96M
Parks & recreation	Culture & recreation	$79M	—	$79M
Highways	Transportation	$43M	—	$43M
Housing & community development	Environment & housing	$34M	—	$34M

Trend · 3 fiscal years

Nominal dollars. The Census Bureau cautions that single-government series are edited only for aggregates — read direction, not decimals.

Revenue

+4% over 2 yrs

$4.75B → $4.94B

Spending

+13% over 2 yrs

$5.06B → $5.73B

Debt outstanding

-3% over 2 yrs

$4.35B → $4.22B

How it compares · 71 cities and counties in the Library

Percentile within the cohort on each place's latest Census year. Higher is not better — the last column says what a high reading means so you can decide whether it matters here.

Measure	City of Baltimore	Cohort median	Percentile	Higher means
Spending per resident	$10,055	$3,741	94th	more spent per resident
Revenue per resident	$8,670	$3,548	92nd	more raised per resident
Taxes per resident	$3,113	$1,328	88th	heavier own-tax load
Debt per resident	$7,397	$3,865	82nd	more borrowed per resident
Own-source share of revenue	57%	81%	8th	less dependent on aid
Federal aid share of revenue	7%	7%	53rd	more exposed to federal cuts
Capital share of spending	13%	18%	35th	more building, less operating
Interest share of spending	2%	4%	13th	more spend servicing debt
Debt ÷ annual revenue	0.85×	1.05×	36th	more leveraged

About this data

Census classification categories, not this government's own budget structure. Figures are audited actuals for the fiscal year shown, not the adopted budget.
The Census Bureau edits unit-level data only to produce state and national aggregates and advises against reading it as a precise time series for any single government; treat year-over-year moves under ~5% as noise.
Employee-retirement-system revenue is excluded (published separately by Census). Utility and insurance-trust revenue are shown separately from general revenue.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances (Individual Unit public-use files), unit 242510208246 (Baltimore City). Retrieved 2026-09-07. Classification manual.

Spot an error, or know a better source for this place's adopted budget? Suggest an edit on the assessment.

Adopted budget · FY2027

City of Baltimore's own budget, in its own structure, read from its published budget book and checked against the total the document itself prints. This is the current year — more recent than the Census series above, but only comparable to this city's own history. Totals cover 82 departments.

$4.43B total

Police$657M15%
M-R: Baltimore City Public Schools$414M9%
Fire$325M7%
Stormwater$298M7%
M-R: Miscellaneous General Expenses$267M6%
General Services$213M5%
675 Engineering and Construction$200M5%
307 Substance Use Disorder and Mental$189M4%
Parking$161M4%
671 Water Management Wastewater$118M3%
M-R: Debt Service$101M2%
Recreation and Parks$86M2%
All other (70)$1.40B32%

Parsed from the published budget book (pages 180-199) — every agency, all funds, before internal-service and pay-as-you-go deductions.
Figures are checked against the total the document itself prints before publishing.
Baltimore's open-data budget stops at FY2023 and its Socrata portal has been retired, so the current year comes from the published book.
Totals are before the internal-service and pay-as-you-go deductions the city applies to reach its headline appropriation figure.
Source: Fiscal 2027 Executive Summary — Operating Budget (published budget book), retrieved 2026-09-08. Open the source document.

Looking for how this fits City of Baltimore's capacity to deliver? The fiscal dimension, binding constraint, and pathways live in the City of Baltimore capacity assessment.