The D.C. Council on Tuesday is expected to adopt the District’s proposed fiscal 2010 budget, a plan that distributes more than $20 million in earmarks, slashes funding for the summer jobs programs and eviscerates the office of a top executive official.
The Committee of the Whole is scheduled to mark up and vote on the council’s version of the city’s $5.4 billion budget, which is now considerably different than the plan initially offered by Mayor Adrian Fenty. The final numbers match and the projected $800 million shortfall remains closed, but the priorities have changed.
Fenty’s Summer Youth Employment Program was reduced by $20 million, for example, half of which was directed to charter schools. Deputy Mayor For Education Victor Reinoso saw his office cut by $3.1 million, and many of his responsibilities shifted elsewhere. Three members of the mayor’s legislative staff were eliminated. And the Offices of Veterans Affairs and Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs, both of which Fenty had sought to dissolve, were spared.
But some things never change: The 2010 plan still provides more than $20 million in earmarks to a huge lineup of nonprofits.
That includes $1.5 million for the CityMarket at O Street project in Shaw, money that the economic development committee yanked from the Howard Theater rehabilitation. There’s $1 million each to the National Council of Negro Women, the Washington Ballet and the Phillips Collection for capital projects.
And then there’s a list of some 120 community-based social service groups and arts-based organizations, from the Kennedy Center and the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival to the Crystal Meth Working Group, Keely’s Boxing and Woodland Tigers Youth Sports, which all receive their share — in most cases, $250,000 or less.
The council accepted most of the mayor’s new fees and fee increases, though Councilman Phil Mendelson once again managed to strike the proposed increase to the E-911 levy. Committees also saved millions of dollars by reducing fixed costs — utilities, rent, postage, security, janitorial — that Fenty overestimated, council members say.
“I’m uncomfortable simply parking money in fixed costs that we don’t need,” at-large Councilman David Catania, health committee chairman, said Monday.
Council members expect a relatively orderly markup. Chairman Vincent Gray, Catania said, “has done a great job of having the members come to the table and work though issues.”
