Party like it’s 1993

D.C. Councilman Jim Graham’s introduction last week of legislation creating a new income tax bracket is a short walk from that now infamous fifth-quarter tax year gimmick. Is a financial control board waiting in the wings?

To understand the analogy, let’s go to the clips: It’s the early 1990s; Sharon Pratt Kelly is mayor. Congress, in an anyone-but-Marion-Barry mood, dumps a boatload of money in her lap. Three years later, red ink is rising like the Red River. Hoping to keep the city from drowning, Kelly and her finance expert propose a fifth quarter to the tax year. The council, as inept as the executive, approves the plan.