The full D.C. Council could give its first formal approval of expansions of traffic cameras and performance parking, and extensions of hours for alcohol sales as it takes up the city’s 2013 budget Tuesday.
Less than two months after Mayor Vincent Gray first proposed his budget, lawmakers will take the first of two votes that will culminate in the city’s spending plan for next year.
“We remain hopeful that the council will pass the mayor’s proposed budget, which does not raise taxes or fees,” mayoral spokesman Pedro Ribeiro said.
To balance the budget, Gray is counting on lawmakers to back a bundle of program cuts and initiatives to generate extra cash.
Although a council committee voted down Gray’s request to extend bar hours — and raise an estimated $3.2 million in the process — council Chairman Kwame Brown last week introduced a measure that would also extend sales hours, but in a more limited way.
Under Brown’s plan, similar to a proposal the committee approved to expand hours during the week of the presidential inauguration, bars would be allowed to sell alcohol until 4 a.m. on all District and federal holidays. Brown’s plan would also permit sales to 4 a.m. throughout weekends surrounding New Year’s Eve, Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day.
There has been limited resistance to a plan that would allow liquor stores to open two hours earlier at 7 a.m., which has been estimated to add $1 million to city coffers. Even though Brown opposes the plan, it cleared the same council committee that killed Gray’s broad extension of bar hours and could ultimately make it into the final budget package.
Lawmakers could also green-light a plan to raise $30 million by installing more traffic cameras throughout the city, part of Gray’s vision “to cover the entire city.”
Although lawmakers did not strip the proposal out of the budget in committee, legislators have signaled their concerns that the District is fining its residents too often. But if lawmakers kill the proposal, they’ll have to find a way to plug the resulting $30 million budget hole, a tall order for a council that has already loudly signaled its frustration with budget cuts to social services, Wilson Building aides said.
Gray has repeatedly said the cameras are not a means to boost revenue but are intended to improve traffic safety.
Lawmakers will also consider whether they want to approve a citywide expansion of the performance parking program that operates in Wards 1 and 6.
With performance parking, officials monitor demand for parking spaces and adjust pricing appropriately several times annually. Gray has projected the program’s expansion could bring in $3 million.
