The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

Baltimore:
Tax Sales and Profiteers

Apr 11, 2016

In Baltimore City, a home owner can lose his or her home for owing $750 in taxes, or for a few hundred dollars owed on water bills.

It happens every spring. Baltimore City puts up thousands of properties for “tax sales,” allowing speculators to buy the right to a property by paying the taxes owed or the water bill debt.

Yes, even though home owners in recent tax sales have lived in their homes and paid their mortgages and taxes for an average of 20 years, they can still have the home sold away from them. Then they either lose it completely, or at best have to buy it back from the predator who scooped it up in a tax sale.

These predators who lurk at every tax sale get to tack on fees and interest to the debt collection they push on home owners. In Baltimore City, to keep their homes, some of the poorest people had to pay back such disgusting sums to these scum waiting to pounce on them.

The mayor of Baltimore says programs exist to help home owners. If that’s so, then why do thousands of owner-occupied properties still go into the tax sales each spring?

And why are 16,000 or more properties already vacant?

No, the whole tax-sale scheme is nothing but another gift made to people with money, just itching to make another financial killing.