The District faces a $95.8 million budget gap in fiscal 2009, as the national economic slowdown finally catches up to a city that reaped and quickly spent bountiful surpluses in recent years.

Revenue estimates prepared by D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi show a crash in property transfer fees, income tax revenues and sales tax collections. Property tax collections remain strong, Gandhi told Mayor Adrian Fenty and the D.C. Council, but that growth will be offset by a reduction in the commercial real estate tax rate.