What was Mayor Vincent Gray thinking when he sent Nat Gandhi a public letter questioning next year’s revenue estimates? When he called the chief financial officer’s estimates “unrealistically low,” said he was “perplexed” and requested Gandhi back up his numbers by answering a dozen questions, didn’t Gray know he was directly attacking the CFO’s statutory independence?
Gray and Gandhi go way back. They are the same vintage and worked over budgets when Gray was council chairman. Why didn’t Gray walk down the hall and ask Gandhi to squeeze a few more million out of the estimate? Gandhi might even have complied.
By instigating a public brawl, Gray has essentially painted himself into a corner.
Gandhi’s five-year term is up in June, and there’s a fair amount of speculation about whether Gray would or should reappoint him to a third term. I’ll go out on a limb to predict that Gray will ask Gandhi to serve another five years; to question Gandhi’s accounting and then bounce him says the CFO has to hew to the mayor’s wishes, compromises the CFO’s independence and could bring Congress down on Gray.
Here’s the back story:
The District’s revenues have been falling, though not at the rate of some states. Gandhi predicted the drop in income. The mayor and city council cut budgets, established a hiring freeze, furloughed workers and raised taxes. It worked. In January Gandhi reported a $240 million surplus. But in his latest revenue estimate, Gandhi expected only a modest increase, which meant Gray would have to cut $115 million more from the budget.
“Needless to say,” Gray wrote to Gandhi, “such a scenario is extremely unwelcome.”
Gandhi has been delivering unwelcome news to D.C. politicians for the past decade. Gandhi first came to the government in the late 1990s when Congress installed a financial control board because D.C. was going broke. Before then, in Marion Barry’s mayoral era, the city budgeted on “funny money.” Gandhi took the joke out. He’s certified that every budget has been in balance, as the law demanded. His revenue estimates are always conservative, as they should be.
Gandhi has played Dr. No to three mayors and a large number of city council members, as in: there’s no money, no more debt, no more tax breaks. Granted, his record has been nicked by a $50 million embezzlement scandal and questions about why he isn’t collecting taxes on commercial property refinancing. But leaders on Wall Street, Capitol Hill and the business community still see him as the adult in the room.
Vince Gray’s public feud with Gandhi is another example of a politically inept politician suffering self-inflicted wounds. After kicking dirt in Gandhi’s face, Gray praised him. His people said he merely wanted information and meant no harm. But when my colleague Alan Blinder asked a mayoral aide about Gandhi’s fate, he said it would be “game on” after this month’s budget process.
I’m not saying Gandhi should be reappointed. He might not accept. But I do know that if and when the “game” begins, Gandhi wins. He does control the money.
Harry Jaffe’s column appears on Tuesday and Friday. He can be contacted at [email protected].
