First, At-Large D.C. Councilman David Catania wanted him fired. Then, Ward 8 Councilman Marion Barry asked him a question that prompted an expletive-laced Valentine’s Day shouting match between legislators. Now, Mayor Vincent Gray thinks he’s an unrealistic pessimist.
Welcome to the life of Natwar Gandhi, the District’s chief financial officer.
On Wednesday, Gandhi announced that he expects the city will take in close to $71 million more during this fiscal year and the next than he originally forecasted.
But in a letter to Gandhi the day after a revenue briefing, Gray seems to think the CFO is being a bit too prudent in delivering the good news.
“I am concerned that your revenue projections may be unrealistically low,” Gray wrote Gandhi in the three-page missive first reported by The Washington Post. “Although the numbers you provided me yesterday are positive, I am unclear that your modeling accurately incorporates the many positive trends currently underway in the District.”
Gray cited population growth, declining unemployment, and economic growth as his reasons why “it is difficult for me to believe that the revenue impact of these positive trends in fiscal year 2013 will be as insignificant as you currently project.”
Gray also chided Gandhi for “unrealistically significant” predictions about the impact of looming federal cuts.
David Umansky, a spokesman for Gandhi, told The Washington Examiner that the CFO’s office is “studying the letter.”
“This is unprecedented,” Umansky said. “Since we came out from under the Control Board, we’ve never had this type of response to the revenue estimates.”
The mayor will roll out his annual budget later this month, and Gandhi’s projections matter as the mayor finalizes his plans.
“Should your estimates hold up, the executive and the [D.C.] council will be forced to identify significant spending cuts, additional sources of revenue or both in order to balance the budget,” Gray wrote. “Needless to say, such a scenario is extremely unwelcome.”
Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans, who chairs the council’s finance and revenue panel, said Friday that Gandhi’s estimates were complicating the budget-making process.
“We have encouraged Gandhi to give us a revenue estimate that doesn’t require us to cut back $100 million,” Evans said in an interview on WAMU-FM. “We shouldn’t find ourselves having to take these draconian actions.”
