The D.C. Council opened the doors for new online lottery games and restored long-term funding to a program that provides welfare to the city’s poorest residents as it passed the final measures needed to close a nearly $200 million budget gap. The lawmakers already approved a plan earlier this month that will put city workers on a four-day furlough to save $19 million. The measures passed on Tuesday provide the legal support and policies needed to fix the budget shortfall caused by dropping revenue and overspending. The D.C. Lottery online poker and fantasy sports games are estimated to bring $13 million into the District’s coffers over the next four years.
| Other council action: |
| > Council members and the mayor can now be able to select one member of their staff who will be able to solicit and receive campaign contributions during election cycles. |
| > The city’s commissions and boards are now required to make public any meeting in which they have a quorum. The bill also creates an open-government office to enforce the new requirements. |
| > Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham won support for a nearly $50 million tax abatement that officials say is necessary for a hotel in Adams Morgan to be built. The tax relief won’t go into effect until 2015, when the Marriott hotel built in and around an unused church is expected to open. |
But the biggest steps taken Tuesday involved the District’s handling of the city’s poorest residents.
On one hand, the council voted to continue to provide welfare payments to poor families after voting earlier this month to eliminate the program by cutting its funding by 20 percent every year for the next five years. The program will be cut by 20 percent this year, but saved over the long-term for welfare recipients who can prove they’ve been receiving job training.
On the other hand, the council voted to lock out of the District’s homeless shelters families that can’t prove they’re D.C. residents.
Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells, who introduced the bill and heads the council’s Human Services Committee, said the city’s homeless shelters are already full.
“Unless we want to expand capacity, I don’t see how we don’t pass this bill,” Wells said.
But other council members found the bill to be “cruel,” as at-large Councilman Phil Mendelson said. It was called an “egregious step” by Ward 5 Councilman Harry Thomas.
“This will mean a mother and child will be turned away in winter because they can’t prove their residency,” Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh said. “And if that happens to one mother and one child, it would be enough.”
Cheh rescheduled surgery on the arm she broke while running over the weekend so she could vote at the last legislative session of the year.
At-large Councilman David Catania, however, pointed out that because of the requirement for congressional review, the change wouldn’t take effect until March — after the coldest part of the season is over.
Chairman Vince Gray had the final say.
“We have to focus our increasingly scarce resources on those who have a track record of living in D.C.,” Gray said.
