jonetta rose barras: Slouching toward fiscal ruin in DC?

It was billed as the DC Council’s 32nd legislative session of the current two-year term. Far from routine, however, it was a spectacle of reckless budgeting and poor policymaking punctuated by incivility and unprofessional behavior. 

“There was pandering after pandering after posturing,” said one senior DC government official I spoke with last week, after the legislature gave preliminary approval to the city’s $8.5 billion local budget for fiscal year 2021 and the associated enabling Budget Support Act. The overall budget is expected to be $16.7 billion. 

Council members made substantial changes to Mayor Muriel Bowser’s initial proposal. Most notably, they proposed nearly $64 million in taxes and fees.

“I am worried about the city’s financial future,” Council Chairman Phil Mendelson told me during an interview late last week. “The dramatic change in ideology on the council is putting at risk the financial stability we built over the years with healthy reserves and a largely competitive tax base.”

DC Auditor Kathy Patterson said she thought that given the current fiscal challenges instigated by the coronavirus pandemic, the mayor’s budget was “reasonable.”

“It always concerns me to see the council increase the level of spending beyond what the mayor has proposed,” she continued. “It worries me that taxes are being raised and money is going to programs that have not yet proved their value.”

She echoed unofficial reports that Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey DeWitt has signaled there may be more economic decline. “They’re expanding the budget knowing they may have to come back and make [additional] cuts,” Patterson added. 

The council is expected to take its second vote on the budget next week. It could be that legislators will claw back some of the revenue enhancements and hold them in abeyance for future use in anticipation of the CFO’s revised revenue report. 

However things turn out, I feel certain the public will witness yet another display of government dysfunction and political shenanigans. 

At a time when elected officials should be working assiduously to bring the community together, some council members have chosen to deploy Trumpian-like us vs. them rhetoric and behavior. In my view, they have demonized whole portions of the government workforce and citizenry — police officers, high-income wage earners and  corporations. 

For example, members of the council’s far-left wing, including Charles Allen, Brianne Nadeau and Elissa Silverman, sought passage of a so-called “wealth tax,” which has been their collective aspiration for years. They seemed to suggest that upper-income DC residents weren’t providing their fair share. Fortunately, Mendelson led the majority of the council in defeating the proposal introduced by Allen. 

Mendelson said he thought he had satiated his colleagues’ thirst for taxes by proposing a 10-cent hike in the gasoline sales tax and a 3% tax on advertising sales; those could  yield $37 million in additional revenue. 

The new sales tax has been roundly criticized by the advertising industry and media organizations that partially depend on such sales, however. In a written statement, the Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Press Association noted the 3% levy came “at the eleventh hour, without even a public hearing” and “would essentially kick the newspaper industry when it’s down, subjecting it to new taxes that will be difficult to calculate and economically devastating to pay, at a time when the District’s newspaper industry is working round the clock to keep our citizens informed about an ongoing public health crisis.”

Angela Franco, interim president and CEO of the DC Chamber of Commerce, made a similar argument. “There should be a process where [the] community and stakeholders are invited to the table to voice their opinion before adding an additional tax,’ she said.

Still, Mendelseon’s proposed taxes weren’t enough for some legislators. In what seemed a choreographed dance, the tax-and-spend crowd submitted revenue-raising amendments: a cut in tax incentives to technology companies, a delay in a promised tax reduction to corporations, and a lower threshold in order to capture more in estate taxes. Ironically, Mendelson ended up supporting one of those moves.

Then, legislators went on a shopping spree, throwing around money for various programs with little explanation of their impact or value. They seemed more concerned about whether they would be celebrated as equity mavens, taking from the rich and from commercial businesses to give to the poor or to satisfy the demands of advocacy and nonprofit communities, who likely will benefit from increased spending through receipt of grants and contracts. 

The only bulwark against council-inspired financial ruin is the city’s independent CFO, said former City Administrator Robert Bobb. “No matter what happens going forward, the CFO is the balancer” who will set the ceiling for spending. 

Bobb — now a turnaround fiscal and management expert who works with state and local governments — was sensitive to DC policymakers’ multitasking. He said they have to reduce costs and stimulate the economy while trying to provide services as a result of the pandemic. “That is a tight wire to walk.”

Nevertheless, he asserted that the council has the duty to determine the short-term and long-term effects of programs. “That requires not only a debate but discipline.”

No discipline could be found at last week’s meeting. 

Policy changes — witnessed via Zoom — happened without input from residents or business owners who may be adversely affected by tax increases. They also occurred without critical data. 

Council members proposed more money for violence interruption, bringing the total possible appropriation to more than $10 million — although officials at the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement could not provide sufficient data on their effectiveness in preventing crime. Equally egregious, legislators relocated authority for security at traditional schools from the Metropolitan Police Department to DC Public Schools while simultaneously slashing the $24 million contract by $4.5 million. That decision appears to have come without a full understanding of the police department’s supervisory responsibility.

“Nobody is looking at what value we are getting for those dollars,” said Patterson, a former council member who had oversight of public safety and schools at various times during her legislative tenure. “There has been no roundtable to take a closer look at addressing equity [or other] concerns.”

Legislation linking MPD and DCPS was adopted nearly two decades ago at Bobb’s request during Mayor Anthony A. Williams’ administration. “We worked very hard to put in all kinds of protections,” said Patterson. Among other things, they created a rigorous 11-step training system. 

While critics got their way on the removal of police from school security, no one has spoken to Bobb, who went on to head the DC State Board of Education for several years.

“Schools generally are focused on teaching and learning,” Bobb said. “The [MPD] is the best agency to provide on-campus security.

“Police know the laws better. They have intelligence in a community. Things could start in a community and play themselves out on campus. The police can prevent those things,” continued Bobb.

That seems logical. But thoughtful, deliberative, fact-based and data-driven processes have been mostly absent in the 2021 budget discussions. Generally, it’s been an emotional, knee-jerk exercise amplified by rants about racial and economic equity. Silverman used the term “equity” more than a half-dozen times on Tuesday. 

The message being sent–deliberately or not– is that the government has deliberately cheated poor people of color, and that the rich and the business community will no longer get away like fat cats. 

“You can’t revive a community without business. You can’t give away the store, either,” said Bobb. “But there can’t be one hand clapping. 

“No community can survive without a thriving business community, and no business community can survive without a thriving community,” he continued. “That partnership is very important.” 

DC’s legislators seemed oblivious to the dangerous atmosphere created by their overstated charges of premeditated racial and economic alienation of Black and Brown DC citizens. From my vantage, I have been struck by the liberalism of this town and its residents, including middle- and upper-income families. They care about their neighbors. Each year, two-thirds of their tax dollars go for social services and education, designed to uplift low-income families and people who are homeless. 

If there is a problem about the quality of services, council members have only themselves to blame. They don’t conduct field-level investigations to determine what is actually happening on the ground level. When agency directors appear before various council committees, many legislators fail to conduct detailed and penetrating oversight while others choose to simply take the day off.

Don’t expect them to acknowledge their shortcomings. They’d much rather raise taxes all over the place, misappropriate millions of dollars, and play a wicked game of divisive politics.

Certainly, elected officials should listen to their constituents. In a time of crisis, however, leaders are expected to lead, to have tough conversations with citizens and make the hard decisions that will benefit all people — not just those yelling the loudest.

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jonetta rose barras is an author and freelance journalist, covering national and local issues including politics, childhood trauma, public education, economic development and urban public policies. She can be reached at thebarrasreport@gmail.com.