The District is quickly approaching the point where it will no longer be able to afford to build new roads, overhaul school buildings and make other capital expenditures. If revenue and spending on capital projects remains the same, the city will be up against a self-imposed 12 percent debt cap within five years. If revenue slips by $100 million, as it has since April, the cap will be reached in four years, according to Ward 1 Councilman Jack Evans, who heads the D.C. Council’s Finance and Revenue Committee. The city’s debt currently amounts to 10.3 percent of all expenditures, a spokesman for Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi said.

“The financial situation is a lot worse than the public realizes,” at-large Councilman Phil Mendelson told The Washington Examiner. “We have increasingly relied upon borrowing to the point where every capital project could come to a halt.”