Baltimore mayor launches campaign to improve city school facilities

From The Baltimore Sun: Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has introduced a bill to more than double the city's bottle tax as part of a plan to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars to fix dilapidated school buildings. Store owners and beverage lobbyists are pushing hard against the proposal, and the chairman of the City Council committee that must approve the tax says he will delay a hearing for at least two months.

From January 2011... From The Baltimore Sun: Baltimore City's schools CEO Andres Alonso has proposed borrowing $1.2 billion to pay for a massive and rapid overhaul of the city's crumbling public school buildings. The plan hinges on financial commitments from the state and an increase in the city's bottle tax — both of which could prove tough sells.