Bowie passes tax increase to address ‘police-department-sized’ budget gap

Bowie’s new mayor has his first political headache on his hands.

The City Council passed an 18-cent property tax rate increase 4-2 on Monday to address a $20 million budget gap.

The mayor initially proposed a 20-cent hike, which failed in an earlier vote.

Council members Clinton Truesdale and Roxy Ndebumadu voted against both rate increases.

In a video posted on social media, Mayor Michael Estève said the rate increase was still 2 cents short of what’s needed to close the structural deficit in the city budget.

“We’ve got to figure out what we’re going to do. ... We’re either going to explore $2 million in cuts, or we’re going to need to look at some other alternatives to try and cover the remaining 2-cent gap,” Estève said Wednesday.

This year’s budget season has been especially challenging for the city. Estève said the city has already cut about $3.8 million in spending.

Last weekend, Estève, a longtime City Council member who was sworn in after a special election last month, explained how the city arrived at its financial crossroads in a newsletter to residents.

Estève attributed the problem primarily to the city’s 2006 decision to create “its own police department from scratch” without raising taxes to pay for it.

“We went from 0 to 66 officers, backed by our own dispatch center, significant training and equipment costs, and modern facilities, to the tune of about $20 million today,” he wrote in the newsletter.

For years, the city funded its police primarily through the growth of its tax base, and “eating steadily into our large reserve fund,” the mayor said.

Federal pandemic spending also helped cover costs, but that ended in 2025, he added.

“For several budgets now, city finance personnel warned this was not sustainable, especially as equipment and personnel costs started to grow faster than inflation,” Estève said, using the example of trash collection trucks that cost $120,000 a few years ago but now cost $280,000.

Estève said past city leadership had avoided tax increases for fear of public backlash, worsening the problem.

“Now, with an end to generous pandemic funds, the federal, state, and county all facing growing budget deficits of their own, and a stagnating federal-dependent local economy, the music has stopped,” he said. “Bowie faces a police-department-sized hole in its budget without the reserves to save us.”

Spending cuts so far include reduced grants and scholarships; staffing cuts in the senior center, museums and the city manager’s office; scaled-back programs and events; and lower spending on printing and supplies.