City State: Morning Roundup

A MOVE TO TAX D.C. RESIDENTS’ INCOME on interest from out-of-state bonds has emerged as a key battleground in the debate over revenue ahead of a final D.C. Council vote scheduled for today on the city’s $10 billion fiscal 2012 budget. Some council members were wary of the proposal in lieu of one by Mayor Vincent C. Gray, a Democrat, to raise the income tax increase on the city’s highest earners — noting that retirees on fixed incomes tend to hold the bonds and public opposition had killed similar measures in the past, according to The Washington Times.

THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA HAS NO PUBLIC, SEARCHABLE RECORDS on money that corporations give to D.C. Council members’ charities. The situation was exposed last week when the city’s attorney general filed a lawsuit against council member Harry Thomas Jr.’s group, calling it little more than a political and personal slush fund, according to The Washington Times. Among the dozens of contributors to Team Thomas is Comcast, whose franchise agreement to provide cable television services across the District of Columbia expires next year. By contrast, in the federal government, donations from lobbyists or their clients to lawmakers’ charities are public and searchable online.

D.C. ATTORNEY GENERAL IRVIN NATHAN told D.C. Council members on Monday that an ethics reform bill before them creates a “redundant bureaucratic apparatus” that does not deal with the root causes of scandal and fails to support existing agencies charged with oversight of city officials. City hall has been beset with a string of scandals, investigations and allegations over the past several months, The Washington Times reports.

VIRGINIA SENATE CANDIDATE GEORGE ALLEN is scheduled to announce a plan today in Richmond to get the United States back on course by focusing on jobs, competitiveness, freedom and opportunity. Mr. Allen, a Republican, calls the plan “Blueprint for America’s Comeback.” Mr. Allen is trying to reclaim the U.S. Senate seat he lost in 2006 and would face Democrat Tim Kaine if he become the GOP’s candidate, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

VIRGINIA SENATE CANDIDATE TIM KAINE says the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate’s failure to offer a 2012 budget is a “major failure.” In a CNBC interview Monday, Mr. Kaine, a Democrat, was asked if there wasn’t a certain level of hypocrisy in Democrats’ withering criticism of the plan from Rep. Paul Ryan, House Budget Committee chairman, with no plan of their own to offer, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “I don’t disagree with you that the absence of a budget is a major problem,” answered Mr. Kaine, the former Democratic National Committee chairman, adding that “there is a very serious problem with Washington … not doing what it needs to do.”

THE MARYLAND STADIUM AUTHORITY will consider a request today from Prince George’s County for $25,000 for a market and economic analysis on bringing the Washington Redskins’ training facility from Virginia’s Loudoun County, according to the Washington Business Journal.

COAST GUARD HELICOPTERS IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA intercepted a small aircraft Monday as it entered restricted airspace, authorities said. It was the second interception of a small aircraft near restricted airspace in the area in three days, according to The Washington Post.