Group backing Baby Bonus disappointed, Mayor’s office pleased with decision

If voters approved it, it would have granted at least $1,000 to new moms in Baltimore. But now, it won't show up on the ballot at all this November.

This summer, the Mayor and City Council sued to keep the 'Baltimore Baby Bonus' off the ballot. On Thursday, the Maryland Supreme Court handed down its decision on the effort after hearing oral arguments Wednesday, agreeing with an August city circuit court ruling which said the measure, which sought to amend the city's charter, was not proper charter material.

"Accordingly, it cannot be presented on the November 2024 general election ballot," Chief Justice Matthew Fader wrote in a per curiam order.

"Obviously, we've put a lot of work into this over the last year and a half. But our hearts really hurt for the children of Baltimore and the future children of Baltimore," said Nate Golden, president of the Maryland Child Alliance, at a virtual press conference hours after the court's call became public.

Golden, a math teacher at Forest Park High School, leads the organization, which was behind the push to grant payments to mothers in an effort to reduce child poverty.

"We never expected that the court would rule in their favor," Golden told reporters. "Again, we explicitly designed this to meet the case law. And so, Baltimore has a major loss today. A third of the children in this city live in poverty."

In July, the Mayor and City Council filed suit against the city's Board of Elections and the Maryland Child Alliance to keep the effort away from the November ballot.

READ MORE: Mayor, city file lawsuit against charter amendment to give new parents $1,000

“Today’s decision was the right one," the mayor's office said in a Thursday statement to WMAR-2 News. "While we’ve said from the beginning that we align with the goal of providing more Baltimore residents with access to guaranteed income, this proposal was not legally sound and should not have been on the ballot. We’re grateful the Maryland Supreme Court agreed. It is our sincere hope that everyone supportive of this effort joins us in advocating for more guaranteed income programs, particularly at the national level.”

Golden told WMAR the group would continue policy work on child poverty, including pushing for an expanded state child tax credit.

"We're not giving up. We're not going anywhere. What this coalition did is it showed that there's a lot of people in Baltimore who care about our children and really want to do something. Our legislators are doing nothing," Golden said.