Anyone who thinks an expanded Democratic majority across the federal government will simply hand the nation’s capital upward of $1 billion a year for its capital needs is “deluded,” D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said Thursday.
“I cannot tell you with a straight face that even with a Democratic president and a Democratic Congress that we will get $800 million,” Norton said during the unveiling of a new report that details the District’s fiscal turnaround over the past decade and what it still needs to become a showcase capital city.
The report, prepared by D.C. Appleseed, was crafted to send a message to Congress: The city is financially stable 10 years after hitting bottom, but federally imposed restraints stand in the way of D.C. becoming a truly great capital.
Norton said she’s not going to introduce a bill that simply seeks cash for the District, nor will she propose to co-opt a slice of the next stimulus package. Rather, she said, the city must think strategically to devise a long-term plan acceptable to liberals and conservatives.
Mayor Adrian Fenty called the Appleseed report “timely” and said that he would work to implement its recommendations. Fenty told WTOP he is drafting a list of projects that could benefit from the next federal stimulus package, which he will send to the Bush administration in the coming days.
The District loses roughly $2.7 billion a year because it is barred from taxing nonresident income and federally owned property. The so-called “structural imbalance” directly affects the city’s ability to pay for capital improvements.
Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi called for “annual, predictable, recurring budgetary help” of about $1 billion.
“Our house is in order, but if there is a flood in the basement, the roof is collapsing — we need help to fix those problems,” Gandhi said.
