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WASHINGTON (Map, News) - The D.C. Council on Monday challenged Mayor Adrian Fenty to justify a 2009 spending plan that throws millions at nonprofits, raises fees and taxes to generate more than $100 million and dips deeply into crucial reserve funds.
Council members were most critical of Fenty’s proposed $10 million earmark for Ford’s Theatre, an award destined for a National Park Service-owned venue undergoing a corporate-sponsored $40 million overhaul.
“No amount of discussion can convince me and some of my colleagues that we should be funding federal projects,” Ward 8 Councilman Marion Barry said during the mayor’s annual budget briefing.
Fenty received the council’s cautious affirmation when he announced his $8.7 billion budget less than two weeks ago, for keeping growth below 1 percent and prioritizing education and affordable housing.
Monday’s six-hour hearing was an opportunity for legislators to put on the table what they’ll be targeting over the next two months of budget deliberations.
Council Chairman Vincent Gray charged that the mayor’s budget “has eliminated any margin for error at a time when the financial markets and the national economy are very unstable.” The spending plan lays out at least $200 million more for new programs, Gray said, which the mayor offsets by dipping into reserves and the general fund balance.
“I do not want to revisit the past by raising taxes and borrowing from our reserves to fill a hole in a budget that we all could have seen coming,” Gray said.
Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh said the mayor’s plan to raise $7.2 million by doubling the cost of riding in a D.C. ambulance is “of great concern.”
At-large Councilman Phil Mendelson signaled his intention to kill a proposed increase to the E-911 fee. Gray and Mendelson both complained the mayor’s budget doesn’t provide enough tax relief for small businesses.
The Ford’s Theatre grant, the largest award in Fenty’s proposed 2009 budget, is important “to the continued economic development of this once-blighted” Penn Quarter community, the mayor said. Ford’s Theatre closed last August for a multiyear modernization, one that has netted $8.5 million from the federal government and $5 million from ExxonMobil.
mneibauer@dcexaminer.com
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Comments from Examiner Readers
12:53 PM MST on Wed., May. 14, 2008 re: "$5.77 billion ’09 budget gets approval"
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11:00 AM MST on Tue., May. 13, 2008
re: "D.C.’s budget has tax relief, though level in doubt"
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9:11 AM MST on Tue., May. 13, 2008
re: "D.C.’s budget has tax relief, though level in doubt"
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4:20 AM MST on Mon., May. 12, 2008
re: "D.C. Council tearing apart Mayor’s proposed budget"
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11:31 AM MST on Wed., Apr. 9, 2008
re: "Councilman: Accounting failures threaten District budget reforms"
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4:45 AM MST on Wed., Apr. 9, 2008
re: "Councilman: Accounting failures threaten District budget reforms"
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Examiner Reader said:
Yet another $56 million for a bunch of social programs. Just how much money do we need to drain from taxpayers? Taxpayer rage? That's a joke, and Council members know that no matter what they do, DC voters, with short memories, will just roll over and reelect them again...and again...and again.
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Brian said:
Cutting taxes in DC across the board is the only way to stop these compulsive spenders from throwing money away year after year after year.
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Mike Licht said:
Re: D.C.’s budget has tax relief, though level in doubt -- The $10 million grant to Ford's Theatre is sailing right through, despite widespread public rage. I guess council members don't plan to run for re-election.
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Roberta Carroll said:
Mary Cheh did not follow the process to add 3 amendments to close Klingle Road. Ms. Cheh does not represent what is best for the environment, transportation or the District and the majority of her ward. There are 13 acres of open green space beside Klingle Road, we don't need more in Ward 3. Ms. Cheh will lose this land that was given to DC as a highway forever in 1885. A hike/bike path in the middle of a road makes no logical sense.
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stinkeye said:
according to Gandhi, mother harriet's theft of funds are "not considered quantitatively ‘material’ in relation to the District’s overall budget.” want to know how we have been impacted? 50 mil could buy a few shiny new schools, pay a few police officers, fix our libraries & parks...not 'material'...how obnoxious.
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Examiner Reader said:
There has been such a lack of attention focused on what the accounting scandal means to DC residents, and the budget. It's all about how daring Harriett what's her name was, and that sort of thing. Well, how have we been IMPACTED? What is the effect of all this in nuts and bolts terms?
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