UPDATE:
Gray spokeswoman Doxie McCoy told The Washington Examiner that the televised budget discussions “were always tentative and dependent on how the Chairman and Councilmembers could come up with a budget in the most expedient manner given the time constraints they have been working under.”
Mayor-elect Vince Gray had D.C. Council members schedule time Monday afternoon to hold a televised budget discussion, but it was canceled on Monday without any stated reason, council sources told The Washington Examiner.
The scaled-down budget will come from Gray’s D.C. Council Chairman office sometime late Monday or early Tuesday morning before the council votes on it. Council sources say that despite appearances of support for a tax increase, it doesn’t seem likely Gray is going to include one.
The process of dealing with the $188 million shortfall has been different than the one Gray described in a speech he delivered last month.
While warning the city of deep cuts ahead, Gray also said, “Despite this very tight timeline, I will do everything possible to ensure that this budget gap-closing process is as transparent as possible. I will ensure that budget deliberations will be broadcast live on Channel 13.”
But the only portion of the budget process that has been public was a 15-hour public hearing held last week. The remainder of the discussions have been held behind closed-doors in one-on-one meetings with council members. Gray has put the blame on Mayor Adrian Fenty, telling The Washington Examiner that the mayor gave the council an “unreasonable” amount of time to deal with the deep cuts by sending down his budget proposals just two weeks before the council vote. The council can’t act on the budget until the mayor sends his proposals.
Without a public meeting before the council votes, it’s not likely Gray can know with absolute certainty that he has the votes to get his proposal passed. But as mayor-elect and council chairman, Gray is an unprecedented position of power. He might be relying on that along with public pressure to get the budget fixed to get the votes he needs for is plan.
