Math is not my strong suit, so help me out here: Is the District going broke, or is the government fat with cash?
For Council Chairman Vince Gray, the sky is falling. The chief legislator’s take seems to be: OMG, we are more than $200 million in the red! On Monday he called D.C.’s fiscal condition “very alarming.”
Mayor Adrian Fenty sees blue skies. His message to Gray: Chill Chairman. Fenty fired off a news release that promised “continuous improvement in services for District residents.” Easy peasy!
Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi comes out with news that the latest audit of D.C.’s books is “clean,” which means his bean counters can show where the money is coming from and where it’s going. That doesn’t mean we have any to spare.
Meanwhile, we learn that President Obama wants to send in about $715 million in federal funds to — among other programs — help D.C.’s public and charter schools ($63 million), build the new Department of Homeland Security ($380 million), and keep funding the Tuition Assistance Grant that helps D.C. residents pay tuition at state universities ($35 million).
What about the “fund balance”? That’s accounting talk for money in the bank. The District has nearly $1 billion in cash reserves. Most of those millions are restricted. Some must be held in reserve to pay debts, some has to be kept in the bank to pay retirement benefits. Then there’s the $284 million in the rainy day fund. Congress says we cannot use the money. So it sits.
“If it isn’t raining now,” asks Ed Lazere, head of the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, “then when?” Lazere wants Congress to let the District spend its own money. What a concept!
But do we need the cash? Are we hurting?
The answer is yes, according to Gandhi. The CFO is scheduled to testify Friday before the city council, where he will tell the spendthrift legislators that prospects are “bleak.” Yes, we are spending more than we are taking in. The District is better off than Virginia and Maryland, but he will advocate austerity — as in spending cuts.
Lazere sees “suffering across the board,” especially for the poor folks and the unemployed. Their needs for city services will rise just as the revenues continue to decline. The city closed two welfare intake centers just as food stamp requests increased by a third.
It’s clear that we will be short of cash, and something has to give. The council and the mayor have a tendency to cut programs and take from our constituents in need. Why not reduce capital projects — like Skyline Town Center or the Southwest Waterfront or the O Street Market? Credit markets are still tight, the projects are barely taking off, and a year’s delay won’t hurt that much. That would take $284.5 million committed to these projects off the books.
Why not choose a more selfless path this time?
E-mail Harry Jaffe at [email protected].
