Officials race to open Baltimore Port, which generates nearly $400 million in state and local tax revenue annually.
Federal officials are not prepared to speculate on when the Port of Baltimore will be open again, but there is a financial urgency to open as soon as possible.
The port is responsible for nearly $3.3 billion in personal wages and salaries, $2.6 billion in business revenue, and nearly $400 million in state and local tax revenue annually. That is roughly $1.09 million in tax revenue a day.
And on an individual level, it comes down to personal paychecks.
“With no cargo coming in or out—until they open the channel—there will be a point when they’ll completely close down the loading and unloading operation, which is pretty catastrophic for the members of the ILA who work on the waterfront,” Rich Krueger, president of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) Local 953, told The Epoch Times.
They are the clerks and checkers who handle the complex paperwork involved with international cargo. Some 250 union members of this union work at the Baltimore Harbor, and other unions represent other workers there.
“Nobody knows how long they’re going to go without getting a paycheck. So you can imagine people with