Mayor-elect Vince Gray is discussing plans to close a $188 million budget gap in private, one-on-one meeting with council members.
The Washington Examiner has confirmed that at least six council members met with Gray on Thursday and the others are scheduled to meet with him Friday.
In the meetings, Gray has said very little about his specific plans for fixing the budget shortfall, council sources told The Examiner. Instead, he spends the majority of the meetings, which last less than an hour, hearing about programs the council members want to save, where they want to cut and if they support raising taxes. At the center of the conversation are the proposed cuts Mayor Adrian Fenty sent to the council last week.
The council is scheduled to vote on the budget fix Tuesday. It’s expected that members will spend Monday afternoon publically hashing out the budget and details to an increasingly-likely tax hike.
But in the end, it will be Gray who provides the final plan — and council members don’t expect to have it in their hands until early Tuesday morning.
Council members with confirmed Gray meetings on Thursday: David Catania and Phil Mendelson (both at-large), Tommy Wells (Ward 6), Councilman Jack Evans (Ward 2), Mary Cheh (Ward 3) and Marion Barry (Ward 8).
