Beginning Oct. 1, D.C. residents should expect to pay more to, and get less from, the District government after the D.C. Council on Friday unanimously adopted its revised fiscal 2009 and 2010 budgets.
The council successfully balanced the $5.4 billion 2010 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.” The plan employs tax increases, job reductions and deep agency cuts to close a $666 million deficit over the two years.
“The Council is acting today to ensure that we never again return to those horrific days of government insolvency,” Gray said, referring to the 1990s when the District was under federal control.
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. Between the two, $400 million and 1,613 full-time equivalent positions were cut.
There were reductions in programs long deemed sacrosanct, notably the public schools. Most noncompetitive earmarks were axed. And the Metropolitan Police Department was barred from using local money to hire new officers, allowing attrition to reduce the force.
The effect on taxpayers? The city’s sales tax will increase from 5.75 percent to 6 percent, its gas tax will rise from 20 cents to 23.5 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.
As for education, 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.
Fenty, who must sign the budget bills, has raised concerns about the council’s decisions affecting DCPS. His office did not 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. Ward 4 Councilwoman Muriel Bowser is crafting language that would continue the $10 rate for the “worst-offending properties,” she said.
The council is now in recess. A second vote on the 2010 Budget Support Act is scheduled for mid-September.
