Mayor Adrian Fenty has proposed cutting hundreds of jobs, slashing city services, raiding the District’s rainy day fund, and redirecting federal stimulus dollars to close a $340 million budget shortfall that looms over the next two fiscal years.
» 1,631 filled and vacant positions slashed in approved 2010 budget.
» 250 more filled and vacant positions may be cut before August.
» More than 1,300 city employees soon to be out of work.
The gap-closing measure was unveiled Thursday, two weeks ahead of the D.C. Council’s anticipated vote on the measure. The plan includes everything done up until this point to close a $263 million 2009 deficit, as well as what may be done to fill the remaining $340 million in ’09 and ’10.
“When you have to make changes, you don’t cry over it,” Fenty said during a news conference on the steps of the John A. Wilson Building. “The hard work has just begun.”
Fenty’s proposal includes $110 million in service cuts and the axing of 250 positions — 70 percent of which are filled. The jobs cuts are over and above the 1,600 positions that the council agreed to slash in 2010.
The Addiction, Prevention and Recovery Administration’s detoxification program stand to lose 80 full-time slots, said at-large Councilman David Catania, chairman of the health committee. The services will be outsourced, he said, to save money and maintain service.
More specifics of whose jobs will be lost, and what services will be cut, will not be available until Friday when the full plan is presented to the council.
Fenty’s strategy also calls for lifting $125 million from the contingency reserves, 50 percent of which will have to be returned within the next year. It proposes converting certain dedicated tax and parking meter revenues — dollars usually set aside for a specific purpose — into general fund revenue. It suggests “sale of assets” will generate another $6 million. And the federal stimulus will provide another $188 million.
Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans noted that about two-thirds of the city’s $5.4 billion annual budget is used for human services, education and public safety. Those areas will be affected, Evans said, but the hope is to spread the pain among many agencies and avoid serious reductions at any.
Catania called for a “measured, responsible, non-acrimonious solution” to the budget problem. The government, he said, should “not to protect a particular constituency or group.”
