Advocates Fear Billions Of Tax Dollars At Stake As Baltimore City Denies Access To IG
Baltimore, MD - Feb. 15, 2026 - A new report from Baltimore’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is offering taxpayers a detailed look at how the city financed Artscape, including the use of more than a half-million dollars in federal COVID relief money for entertainment and related events.
The OIG found the city used more than $500,000 in federal pandemic relief dollars to pay for Artscape entertainment, including $240,000 for one headliner and $125,000 for another. The report also found more than $26,000 was used to pay for the mayor’s VIP reception.
Those expenditures were part of the $641 million the federal government awarded Baltimore for the purpose of recovering from COVID. The city has insisted it complied with the rules governing how the federal dollars could be spent.
“The question is, is that the way the people of Baltimore want their money spent? $600,000 could’ve been used for a lot of different things in the city of Baltimore,” Inspector General Isabel Cumming said.