The D.C. Council on Friday swiftly and unanimously adopted its revised fiscal 2009 and 2010 budgets that employ tax increases, job reductions and deep agency cuts to close a $666 million deficit over the two years.
The council successfully balanced the budget without eating into the city’s rainy day fund — a top priority for Chairman Vincent Gray, who argued Friday that “an approach of facing the problem head-on now was a more responsible tact.”
Gray added, “The Council is acting today to ensure that we never again return to those horrific days of government insolvency.”
That strategy led the council to accept most of Mayor Adrian Fenty’s proposed gap-closing measures — minus his use of contingency reserves — and then to go well beyond.
It translated into a slate of tax hikes and reductions in programs long deemed sacrosanct, like the public schools and the police department. It meant dipping into the tobacco settlement fund, likely forcing an end to smoking cessation programs. It also meant an end to virtually every non-competitive earmark in the budget, leaving dozens of nonprofits scrambling to fill the gap.
What is the impact? On Oct. 1, the first day of fiscal 2010, the city’s sales tax will increase from 5.75 percent to 6 percent, its gas tax will rise from 20 cents to 23 cents a gallon, and the cigarette and small cigar tax will go up from $2 to $2.50 per pack. The levies will automatically return to their current level in three years unless the council decides otherwise.
The uniform per student funding formula for DCPS and the public charter schools was maintained at $8,770, the 2009 level, $175 short of Fenty’s proposal. The number of summer school slots available in 2010 was cut by 50 percent. And the public school ombudsman’s office was eliminated.
Also, the Metropolitan Police Department will be barred from spending local money to hire new officers throughout most of fiscal 2010, allowing officer attrition to decrease the force below 4,000 for the first time in years. Some federal money will be available for new hires.
Fenty has raised concern about the council’s decisions related to DCPS. His office did not immediately return calls for comment.
The council also agreed to halve the Class 3 tax on vacant property, from $10 to $5 per $100 of assessed value — an oddly timed tactic given the city’s budget problems. Ward 4 Councilwoman Muriel Bowser is crafting language that would continue the $10 rate for the “worst offending properties,” she said.
The council has now recessed for the summer. When it returns in mid-September, it will have to vote a second time on the 2010 Budget Support Act.
Other council actions
* The $19 cap on taxicab rides that start and end in D.C. was lifted. It was an “arbitrary, unfair restraint on the cost of the ride,” said Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham.
* A proposed hike to the Emergency 911 tax, a monthly levy on every land and wireless line in D.C., was rejected again. Instead, the Office of Unified Communications lost $6.9 million it had set aside for new equipment purchases.
