D.C. Council notes
» Adopted a code of ethics, minus any sanctions or censure provisions.
» Barred new private fire hydrants without signed document stating who will maintain them.
» Maintained $10 Class 3 property tax for blighted properties, excluding vacant lots
The Fenty administration will spend more than $85 million to purchase a vacant warehouse in Southeast that the government has paid more than $15 million to rent while it has stood unused since mid-2007. Authorization to buy 225 Virginia Ave. was included in the fiscal 2010 Budget Support Act, which won the D.C. Council’s unanimous approval Tuesday. The act, which takes effect Oct. 1, comprises the revenue-generating devices needed to close a $666 million shortfall over two years, including a sales and gas tax increase.
Former Mayor Anthony Williams leased the Virginia Avenue property in late 2006, saddling the fledgling Fenty administration with a $546,000 monthly rent bill on a building it didn’t want. It has become a “terrible financial albatross,” said Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells, who represents the Near Southeast neighborhood where the building is located.
The District is not expected to control the property for long, Fenty spokesman Sean Madigan said. After the buyout, the building is to be turned over to Bethesda-based developer Stonebridge Carras, which will turn it into the headquarters for the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency, the Office of the Chief Technology Officer and the Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
The city will pay off the $85 million in renovation work over 20 years, Madigan said. After two decades, D.C. will finally take ownership.
“We’ll stop the bleeding and put the building to good use,” at-large Councilman Phil Mendelson said.
The approval of the Budget Support Act finally brings an end to the budget adoption process, an “agonizing” period marked by a series of dispiriting revenue projections, Council Chairman Vincent Gray said.
Under the bill, the sales tax will increase from 5.75 percent to 6 percent, the gas tax from 20 cents to 23.5 cents a gallon, and the cigarette tax from $2 to $2.50 per pack. Most noncompetitive earmarks will be eliminated, the Summer Youth Employment Program reduced from 10 weeks to six, and the number of summer school slots halved.
At least one earmark did survive: $1 million for the Historical Society of Washington to support the nonprofit “in developing exhibits in the Carnegie Library.”
