Few escape pain under Fenty's budget cut plan

Services for the poor and the police department were targeted for deep cuts in Mayor Adrian Fenty’s proposal to fill a $188 million budget gap, but no District resident would escape the pain under a shrinking city budget. Fenty’s proposal calls for slashing spending by $161.2 million and shifting cash from several funds to bring $27 million into the operating budget.

“A lot of the cuts fall heavily on folks already hurt by the recession,” said Ed Lazere, executive director of the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute. But reductions like the slicing of library funding and the removal of funding for a program designed to bring healthy food choices into the city’s schools means “it hurts all around,” Lazere said.