Some D.C. Council members continued their pandering to special interest groups this week as the legislature began reshaping Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s fiscal 2010 budget and five-year financial plan. Chairman Vincent C. Gray elevated the tradition by inviting to his news conference every constituency he and his colleagues had satisfied by performing fiscal contortions.
Among other things, council committees initially approved restoring money to the charter schools for facilities; adding $5.4 million for pre-kindergarten programs; funding for the Emancipation Day holiday, which commemorates the freeing of slaves in the District; restoring the Office of Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs; returning funds to the Office of Aging; making the State Board of Education a separate agency; rejecting an increase to the E-911 fee; and eliminating a proposed streetlight maintenance fee.
They also decided to snatch money from the city’s cash reserve contingency to help pay for programs and services in fiscal years 2011, 2012 and 2013. But there are rules governing such spending.
While legislators celebrated their budget wizardry and suggested they were more responsive to District residents’ concerns than the mayor, the reality is that some of the changes made to Fenty’s proposal may be short-lived. What’s worse, council members know this.
Council Chairman Pro Tempore Jack Evans, hoping to sober the audience at Tuesday’s news conference, warned things may not be all wonderful. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi has delayed until the end of June his report estimating the city’s revenues for 2010. “We are likely facing another shortfall, necessitating us coming back and making further changes.”
Evans said the revised estimate could mean $50 million less in revenues. Later, he told me to expect revenue declines for each quarter into next year.
That prediction doesn’t seem far-fetched, given the national economy. The federal stimulus bill has yet to have an effect, and businesses — small and large — continue to close their doors. Unemployment in the District is near 10 percent. The instability in the stock market is affecting high-income residents. And, there is the drop in property value.
In other words, the money the wizards suggest is available today may soon disappear. Evans said the city eventually would have to make deeper cuts in education, public safety and human services; those areas are where there’s the greatest growth in spending.
“You don’t balance the District’s budget by cutting the Office of Veteran Affairs. That’s cutting around the edges,” Evans said. “The mayor didn’t take the dive, and the council didn’t either.”
While Evans disclosed the flaw in the council’s budget approach, most legislators were in the speak-no-evil contingency.
Undoubtedly, they didn’t want to highlight facts that could raise questions about the genuineness of their actions. By the time reality hits those special interest constituencies, it will be July.
The council knows that during the summer most residents don’t focus on the government. What better way to escape responsibility.
