Time To DOGE Baltimore: Top City Leaders Admit They Can’t Track Tax Dollars Flowing To Nonprofits

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s interview with Christopher Rufo last week highlighted that there is still unfinished business at DOGE, where fraud, waste, and abuse may account for as much as 10% of the total federal budget. We even joked that the scale of recent fraud uncovered in Democratic states could compel Elon Musk to return to DOGE in some capacity, as his recent X posts targeting dark-money NGOs suggest renewed interest.

At one level, one has to admire the entrepreneurial spirit of the Somali scammers — with just a few Quality Learing Centers, they built an industrial scale fraud operation nearly on par with USAID, a feat which took our best educated deep staters decades to do … https://t.co/dxxGGh27GT

— DOGE State (@DOGE_STATE) January 16, 2026

After Nick Shirley’s exposé on Somali fraud in Minneapolis, citizen journalists across the country began investigating where their tax dollars are going in Democratic run states. What followed has been a wave of DOGE-style efforts by citizen journalists to root out left-wing corruption, and what they are uncovering is alarming, particularly in California.

The focus is no longer limited to Minnesota and California, but extends across blue states where local left-wing leaders, posing as responsible stewards, are often little more than activists with exceptional talent to loot local, city, state, and even federal coffers.

The latest example of why a DOGE revival at the state level is urgently needed comes from Maryland, a one-party rule state controlled by Democratic kings and queens, where the word accountability doesn’t exist, and the state’s financial profile is rapidly deteriorating, placing increasing financial strains on working-class households as taxes soar amid a deficit crisis.

Fox Baltimore reporter Patrick Hauf dropped a bombshell report this week, revealing that top leaders in Baltimore City do not actually know how many taxpayer dollars are being funneled into the nonprofit universe.

Hauf’s investigative team asked Baltimore City Council members, along with the mayor and comptroller, whether they track nonprofit funding. None provided a precise figure or centralized data.

“None of them provided a precise measure. Some argued that the city government has thorough oversight of taxpayer funds, while others said greater oversight and transparency would be beneficial,” the report wrote.

Hauf’s reporting comes after a similar report of how Maryland state leaders were unable to specify how much taxpayer money they sent to nonprofits.

The pattern of behavior from city leaders to state officials is that accountability doesn’t exist, and why should it when the state is controlled by Democratic Party kings and queens?

The think tank Urban Institute estimated that Maryland nonprofits received more than $6 billion in federal, state, and local grants in 2021. ProPublica data Nonprofit Explorer shows Maryland nonprofits reported $95 billion in revenue in 2024, including executive compensation as high as $7.1 million.

Here are the responses when Hauf’s team asked City Council members, along with the mayor and comptroller, how much taxpayer money is being funneled into nonprofits:

City Council responses:

Zach Blanchard said his office does not track nonprofit funding and doubts other council members do, though he expressed interest in increased disclosure for larger nonprofits.
Mark Conway supported nonprofits but said there is no centralized, public-facing system showing how much public funding flows to nonprofits or what outcomes it produces.
Odette Ramos pointed to oversight hearings, while John Bullock and Jermaine Jones declined interviews.

Mayor and comptroller:

Mayor Brandon Scott and Bill Henry said spending is publicly available through the Baltimore City Board of Estimates dashboard.
The dashboard does not identify whether recipients are nonprofits or organize spending by district.
Both offices acknowledged that greater transparency would be welcome, while maintaining existing oversight requirements.

Fox Baltimore reported earlier this month that the Baltimore City Health Department funneled more than $60 million in federal funds since 2022 to Connections Thru Life, a nonprofit that has not completed required audits and shares office space with a for-profit firm led by the same individual.

Meanwhile, working-class Marylanders are furious with Democratic kings and queens who appear to be looting taxpayers while simultaneously raising taxes and plunging the state into a deficit crisis. On top of that, backfiring green energy policies have collided with surging data-center power demand, sparking a power-bill crisis in the state that is financially crushing working-class households.

Growing anger.

The state’s fiscal mess is the byproduct of one-party rule. Poor stewardship has sent Gov. Moore’s polling numbers sliding, a rare sight for a Democrat in the deep-blue state.