The District’s chief financial officer estimates that revenue for the next fiscal year will be $77.2 million higher than previously predicted, but that’s not as much as some city officials were hoping for.
Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi said the projection shows that although the economy is growing, the growth won’t be as fast as he previously expected.
“Things look very uncertain and we’re cautiously pessimistic,” Gandhi said Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the dollars are already spent, and the new projection isn’t enough to cover $32 million the mayor says is needed to cover a rate increase for Medicaid providers who say they’ll walk if they don’t get it. If one of the two companies leaves, it could cost the city four times as much to provide health care to the poor as the District shifts to a fee-for-service model.
From the revenue boost, $21.6 million goes toward shifting funding for certain government jobs from the capital budget to the operating budget to fix.
Then half of the remainder will go into the District’s savings account.
That leaves $27.8 million for the council’s spending priorities. The first $1.8 million is spent on “Green Teams,” a city program that focuses on hiring ex-convicts to clean D.C. That leaves $26 million — $6 million shy of the cash needed for the Medicaid provider rate increase.
