In a new report aired by WBFF FOX45 Baltimore, investigative reporter Tessa Bentulan laid out what public records show about executive vehicles across Maryland – and why one purchase in Baltimore is drawing outsized attention.
Bentulan reported that Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott is assigned a taxpayer-funded SUV that cost $163,495, making it the most expensive executive vehicle among the state’s top elected leaders, and placing it far above the next-highest vehicle in the records her team reviewed.
The reporting framed the issue as more than sticker shock, because the price gap raises questions about oversight, cost controls, and whether executive spending decisions line up with the financial pressures residents feel every day.
When Bentulan asked the mayor directly how he justifies the cost, Scott pushed back, saying the station was “dragging this thing out” and “not including all the facts,” while refusing to give a clean answer to the central question.
The $163,495 Price Tag And The Mayor’s Response
Bentulan identified the vehicle as a 2025 Jeep Grand Wagoneer assigned to the mayor, and she said the records show it cost taxpayers $163,495.
In the video, the question she kept circling back to was simple: if this is public money, why is this one vehicle so much more expensive than everyone else’s?
Scott refused to answer in a straightforward way, and instead criticized the outlet’s intent, telling the reporter, “We understand that your station has this severe right-wing effort underway,” before cutting off the questioning again.
Bentulan’s report showed that the mayor didn’t just decline to justify the cost – he challenged the premise, calling the repeated questioning “idiotic,” and arguing that comparisons were incomplete.
At another point, when pressed again, Scott described the focus on the vehicle as “ridiculous,” and urged the station to “let it go,” which is the kind of response that can backfire when the topic is taxpayer spending, because it can sound like a demand for silence rather than an explanation.
The most striking part of Bentulan’s segment wasn’t simply that the mayor got angry on camera, but that the anger arrived in place of the one thing people expect from a public official in a spending controversy: a calm, clear, itemized reason for the expense.
How It Compares To The Governor And Other Leaders
Bentulan said the SUV’s cost exceeds other executive vehicles by tens of thousands of dollars, including those used by city and county leaders, and even the state’s top official, Wes Moore.
In her breakdown, Moore’s 2025 Chevrolet Suburban cost about $72,000, with roughly $10,000 in security upgrades, for a total of $82,141.
Scott’s vehicle, Bentulan reported, breaks down differently: about $98,000 for the SUV itself, and nearly $65,000 in security upgrades.
She described it as a 99% price difference compared with Moore’s total – nearly double – while also emphasizing how far apart these numbers sit in a lineup of executive vehicles across the state.
Bentulan said her team looked at county executive vehicles that land in the roughly $51,000 to $77,000 range, then the governor’s at about $82,000, and then Scott’s at $163,000, sitting alone at the top.
The point wasn’t that officials should travel without protection; it was that the gap is so large it invites questions about what standards exist, and whether those standards are being applied evenly.
And from a common-sense standpoint, it’s hard to ignore how quickly public trust evaporates when the public sees a luxury-level price tag attached to an official perk, especially in a time when people are told budgets are tight and tradeoffs are unavoidable.
The Security Upgrade Argument And A Fact Check
Scott’s main defense in the report was that the vehicle is effectively a police vehicle with police equipment added, and he said, “You’re talking about a police vehicle with police equipment on it added on top of that vehicle,” framing the cost as normal in that context.
He also argued the costs were not “astronomical,” which is a phrase that can sound persuasive in the abstract but becomes harder to land when the number on the screen is $163,495 and the comparison chart shows most peers far below it.
Bentulan reported that the price is driven heavily by the upgrades – nearly $65,000 in security work – which is where many people’s questions naturally shift from “Why an expensive SUV?” to “What exactly was added, and why did it cost that much?”
Scott also made a claim about base SUV prices, saying they run between $90,000 and $100,000.
Bentulan said Spotlight on Maryland fact-checked that statement and found manufacturer pricing that starts much lower, noting that a 2026 Jeep Grand Wagoneer MSRP starts below $65,000, while 2026 Chevrolet Suburban and 2026 Ford Expedition prices start around the low $60,000 range.
The mayor countered that a vehicle purchased earlier isn’t the same price as one in 2025, saying, “A vehicle that was purchased in 2023 is not the same price as 2025,” and insisting comparisons need to account for timing and inflation.
Bentulan’s report indicated her team ran comparisons using 2025 vehicles in the records they obtained, which is why the sticker shock didn’t disappear when the comparison set was narrowed.
This is one of those stories where both sides are talking about “context,” but the public tends to treat context like a flashlight, not a fog machine, and the more a leader blocks questions, the more people assume the flashlight is pointed at something embarrassing.
The Only Other Six-Figure Executive Vehicle
Bentulan said that out of all the records reviewed, only one other executive vehicle exceeds $100,000, and it also belongs to a Baltimore City official.
That official is Richard Worley, identified in the report as the police commissioner, assigned a 2024 Chevrolet Tahoe with roughly $28,000 in security upgrades, for a total around $108,242.
Bentulan emphasized that even Worley’s six-figure total is still about $55,000 less than the mayor’s Grand Wagoneer, which is a comparison that matters because it undercuts the idea that this is simply “what it costs” for city leaders with security needs.
Her reporting also made clear that her team spent months chasing down records, running into delays and finger-pointing over which office actually had the documents, before finally assembling enough paperwork to compare vehicles across the state.
That process detail matters more than people realize, because record delays can make a story like this feel speculative until the receipts show up, and Bentulan’s point was that, once they did, the numbers were hard to argue with.
She also noted that Scott’s SUV remained the most expensive even when compared with leaders who have larger jurisdictions, greater security risk, and higher travel demands, which is the sort of line that quietly dares anyone defending the purchase to explain why the risk profile here is supposedly so exceptional.
Why This Became A Bigger Fight Than A Car
Bentulan’s report didn’t treat the SUV like gossip; it treated it like a public-finance question with a public-trust price tag, because executive vehicles sit at the intersection of safety, convenience, and taxpayer patience.
Scott tried to flip the conversation into one about media bias, and he suggested it was “funny” that his office was being asked while others were not, even referencing past leaders and implying the scrutiny is selective.
In a sense, that argument is understandable – public officials often feel singled out – yet it also misses what viewers are likely thinking: if the records show this is the most expensive, then of course it becomes the focal point.
There’s also something revealing about the mayor comparing the question to the idea of never asking how much “The Beast” costs, because that comparison only works if the public accepts that the mayor’s vehicle should be treated as beyond normal scrutiny, and Bentulan’s whole report was built around the opposite idea.
When government spends public money on a benefit that looks luxurious, the burden shifts to the official to explain it clearly, because silence creates its own narrative, and it usually isn’t flattering.
And the deeper issue, which Bentulan’s numbers quietly highlight, is how uneven standards can be across government, where one office can approve an upfit and another office would never dream of signing off on it, even if their security needs are similar.
If nothing else, this kind of story is fascinating because it shows how accountability often comes down to paperwork and persistence, not speeches – someone requests records, someone seems to stall, someone keeps asking, and eventually the public sees a spreadsheet that’s hard to hand-wave away.
Bentulan’s segment ended with a simple conclusion backed by the documents she cited: in Maryland’s executive vehicle lineup, Brandon Scott’s SUV is in a category of its own, and the mayor’s on-camera refusal to justify the cost has only made that category louder.
Raised in a small Arizona town, Kevin grew up surrounded by rugged desert landscapes and a family of hunters. His background in competitive shooting and firearms training has made him an authority on self-defense and gun safety. A certified firearms instructor, Kevin teaches others how to properly handle and maintain their weapons, whether for hunting, home defense, or survival situations. His writing focuses on responsible gun ownership, marksmanship, and the role of firearms in personal preparedness.
