Mayor Adrian Fenty’s proposal to fill a $175 million budget gap has yet to be introduced to the D.C. Council even though council members expected to get it last week. The council can’t begin considering the proposals until the mayor officially submits them. Council Chairman Vince Gray has said he wanted the budget in front of the council last week so the public and council members had enough time to consider the proposals and get them passed before Gray steps into the mayor’s office on Jan. 2. Now, it’s not likely that the council will have the budget in its hands until Friday, giving members only a few weeks to work through it between Thanksgiving and the Christmas break.
“While I would love to have had the budget sent down earlier, I look forward to seeing it in the next few days and making the tough decisions needed to make the city financially strong” Council Chairman-elect Kwame Brown told The Washington Examiner. “It’s important to address these issues in a timely fashion.”
A spokesman for City Administrator Neil Albert said Albert’s office sent the budget proposal to the chief financial officer last week. The CFO will determine whether Fenty’s proposal will meet its stated goals. A CFO spokesman said the office has received a proposal marked “Draft.”
Gray and Albert met on Friday to go over the proposal’s details, the Albert spokesman said.
Gray and Kwame Brown have said they’ve been working with the CFO on their ideas.
On the campaign trail, Gray repeatedly said he wants the public’s input on the budget process. Assuming Fenty sends the budget to the council on Friday as expected, the council will have to act quickly to set up a public hearing, likely sometime in the early days of December. The council would then have three more weeks to consider it. Unlike the annual budget process, Fenty isn’t required to give the council 56 days to review the budget fix for a fiscal year that’s already in progress.
“I’m surprised we haven’t gotten it sooner,” said at-large Councilman Michael A. Brown.
Not all council members were troubled.
“We should be able to get it done without a problem,” said Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans. “My advice to the powers that be: Make as many cuts as possible so we can stay away from revenue hikes.”
