The District is just starting to deal with a $175 million budget gap for the current fiscal year, but D.C. Council Chairman has his eyes on next year, too, when he says the city will have to slice up to $400 million from its spending.
The $400 million shortfall for fiscal year 2012, which starts Oct. 1, 2011, includes the $175 million city officials are scrambling to cut from the budget for the current fiscal year, Gray said.
Gray said he believes the council’s handling of the current budget gap, caused primarily by falling income and sales tax returns, will help reduce the projected gap for 2012.
“We’ll look at how our decisions now will impact next year,” said Gray, the Democratic mayoral nominee.
Programs that received one-time funding sources in the current 2011 — including the summer youth employment program and low-income rental assistance — have no sources of funding for 2012, Gray said, framing the city’s future problems as being the fault of outgoing Mayor Adrian Fenty.
