Despite unprecedented economic successes in recent years, the District’s habit of borrowing huge sums of money to pay for its capital needs has threatened its much-improved financial standing.

Most recently, Mayor Adrian Fenty proposed a $589 million general obligation bond sale to support 170 capital projects, from school modernizations and Metrorail rehab to salt dome renovations and street paving. The resolution, now before the D.C. Council, is tied to spending approved as part of the current fiscal 2007 budget.