Marion Barry says the budget Kwame Brown will present to the D.C. Council on Wednesday will include the $1.9 million in tax abatements he asked for.
“Yeah, I got that,” Barry told The Washington Examiner on Tuesday. Barry sent a memo to Council Chairman Brown on May 18 listing several initiatives he wanted funded in Brown’s budget proposal in return for his vote. Among them was $1.9 million in tax abatements for six churches and nonprofits in his Ward 8.
Barry said he expects to see the $19 million in dollars to fully fund homeless services and about $13 million to fully fund the city’s contribution to Metro, all of which he asked for in the memo and had been cut from the mayor’s proposal.
Barry wouldn’t commit to voting for a hike in the income tax rate on those who earn $200,000 or more annually to a crowd of protestors at city hall Tuesday afternoon demanding fewer cuts to human services.
“I’m not going to commit myself to absolute this and absolute that,” he said.
