D.C. Council members wasted no time Monday in taking digs at portions of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s $12.9 billion budget proposal, including her plan to raise some taxes and to cut funding from the University of the District of Columbia.
D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson opened Monday’s oversight hearing, which kicked off the council’s review of the proposal, criticizing a plan that would have the city outspending the revenue it is expected to collect in the coming year, in part, by using money from special purpose revenue funds.
“Next year, we will be spending faster than the money is coming in,” said Mr. Mendelson, taking aim at the mayor’s proposal to use the revenue funds.
Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey DeWitt later defended the plan as “balanced,” noting that the special revenue funds are different from other reserve and rainy day funds in that lawmakers designed them to be spent for certain purposes but many go unused.
Council members also questioned whether a proposed 5 percent cut to the budget for the University of the District of Columbia would be at odds with the focus of Ms. Bowser’s budget — creating economic opportunities to develop the city’s middle class.
“That university has been run on an inadequate budget for a very long time,” said D.C. Council member Mary Cheh, Ward 3 Democrat, noting that the university is undergoing a reaccreditation review this year. “How are we going to make it better if we don’t make it better?”
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Mr. Mendelson questioned whether paying $5 million to include 24-year-olds in the District’s Summer Youth Employment Program, which provides jobs for teenagers and young adults over the summer, is a good trade off for reducing funding to the city’s only public university.
“We would be cutting opportunities to get training that, in turn, leads to middle wage, middle-class jobs in favor of paying 24-year-olds minimum wage for eight weeks,” Mr. Mendelson said. “I question that policy choice.”
Ms. Bowser defended the expansion of the program, which previously included adults only up to age 21, saying it would provide employment for young adults in one of the toughest-to-employ age groups and could provide opportunities for college graduates after they return home.
“We think it’s a much needed extension to our jobs training arsenal for young people,” she said.
Council member Vincent Orange, at-large Democrat, expressed concern over the mayor’s proposal to raise the city’s parking tax from 18 percent to 22 percent. Council member Jack Evans, Ward 2 Democrat, noted that neither Maryland nor Virginia has a parking tax, and said that a significant portion of D.C. residents are among those who park in city garages that would be subject to the tax increases.
Council members also took the opportunity Monday to question how the mayor plans to spend the $100 million she has dedicated to the city’s Housing Production Trust Fund, which is meant to support construction and rehabilitation of affordable housing.
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“We have spent an enormous amount of money and yet the problem still exists,” said Mr. Evans, concerned that if the city allots large amounts of money, the oversight on spending will be lax and money could be wasted.
Ms. Bowser said one strategy would be to direct the funds to pay for “vulnerable units” that are at risk of disappearing if tax credits that have made the housing affordable in the past are allowed to expire. She also said that money should be put toward rehabbing housing where residents currently live and can afford so that they do not have to find new homes.
Other items tucked into Ms. Bowser’s budget that drew criticism include a change to ensure that the heads of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and the Office Contracting and Procurement, as well as administrative law judges, serve at the pleasure of the mayor rather than through the end of appointed terms.
“It is important that I have a director I am confidant in and I didn’t feel that way,” Ms. Bowser said of her move to appoint a new head of contracting.
Council members also took aim at cuts to funding for schools within their own jurisdictions: Charles Allen, Ward 6 Democrat, noted that nearly a third of the cuts in funding to the capital budget came from schools in his ward.
“I think that puts a lot of strain on the families and their trust in the school system,” Mr. Allen said.
Ms. Bowser defended the cuts, noting that all schools are struggling to get the money they need.
“We all have to make tough choices for the city,” she said.
• Andrea Noble can be reached at anoble@washingtontimes.com.
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