Some D.C. Council members continued their pandering to special interest groups this week as the legislature began reshaping Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s fiscal 2010 budget and five-year financial plan. Chairman Vincent C. Gray elevated the tradition by inviting to his news conference every constituency he and his colleagues had satisfied by performing fiscal contortions.
Among other things, council committees initially approved restoring money to the charter schools for facilities; adding $5.4 million for pre-kindergarten programs; funding for the Emancipation Day holiday, which commemorates the freeing of slaves in the District; restoring the Office of Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs; returning funds to the Office of Aging; making the State Board of Education a separate agency; rejecting an increase to the E-911 fee; and eliminating a proposed streetlight maintenance fee.
