The D.C. Council is set to extend the hours of city bars, expand the use of traffic cameras and increase performance parking this week when it casts a final vote on a $9 billion budget for fiscal 2013.
Lawmakers were unanimous in giving the budget preliminary approval, but the council must vote again on the fiscal plan Tuesday before it can go to Mayor Vincent Gray for his signature.
The vote will mark the end of a months-long struggle between legislators and Gray over proposed cuts and efforts to raise revenue to close a $172 million shortfall.
Gray is set to get much of what he sought.
Lawmakers are poised to give final approval to a plan that would double the number of traffic cameras around the District, generating additional fines for drivers that could provide as much as 20 percent of the money Gray needs to balance the budget.
Gray has repeatedly said he sought the expansion solely to promote traffic safety, but acknowledged the cash infusion that expansion creates.
“This is not about revenue,” Gray told WJLA-TV. “But revenue is a factor because our budget is balanced on the basis of that.”
Gray is also counting on parking changes to generate an extra $3 million for city coffers.
Performance parking — through which officials track demand for spaces and raise prices on those most heavily used — could also be expanded under next year’s budget. The program is now limited to Wards 1 and 6.
Gray’s efforts to generate additional revenue for the District aren’t limited to charging drivers.
The mayor proposed raising millions of dollars by extending bar hours. Lawmakers originally balked at the proposal but ultimately agreed to allow longer alcohol sales on occasion — until 4 a.m. on District and federal holidays and on select holiday weekends. Bars will be allowed to stay open on 19 additional nights next year, though that will vary each year.
Ward 1 D.C. Councilman Jim Graham, who represents after-dark hot spot Adams Morgan, said he’d vote for the budget despite his disappointment over the extension of bar hours.
“Nineteen nights is better than 365, but it’s still 19 nights of imposition in the neighborhoods,” Graham said.
The council will vote separately on a proposal to pay city workers for furlough days they accepted last year.
Legislators voted down similar plans three times, but at-large Councilman Michael Brown is now proposing to pay workers for those furlough days while also boosting affordable-housing programs by about $5 million.
