Budget

The DC Council took its first vote earlier this week on the city’s fiscal year 2023 budget, which is based in large part on $11 billion in local revenues. Legislators are expected to take a second vote later this month on the Local Budget…

The DC Council capped its deliberations on the fiscal year 2022 budget last week, giving final approval to the Budget Support Act at its virtual legislative meeting on Aug. 10. Council members introduced several amendments at the meeting…

The DC Council debated several amendments to fiscal year 2022 budget legislation to include a measure to tax high-income earners at a higher rate to support a number of new initiatives, as well as a failed measure to allocate additional…

In presenting his recommended Fiscal Year 2022 Budget and Financial Plan to colleagues, DC Council Chairman Phil Mendelson called the $17,962,963,587 spending proposal and the attached Budget Support Act (BSA) “transformative.”  (Photo…

There are unquestionable and discernible signs, in my view, that DC’s political season has already begun — although the next election isn’t until 2022. Consider, as evidence, the fact that many politicians and wannabes have been engaged in…

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. …

Soon after Washington Teachers’ Union president Elizabeth Davis learned there was a 3% increase in the per-pupil spending for public education in the proposed fiscal year 2021 budget and financial plan, she called DC Mayor Muriel Bowser at…

Relying on short-term revenue fixes to pay for spending increases doesn't bode well for fair and competitive tax policy. Yet this is one of several troubling aspects of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s budget proposals now under review by the DC…

The deployment of several new fire engines over the past month and a half is helping to address some of the long-standing problems with the city’s fleet of vehicles and equipment, but a recent DC Council oversight hearing made clear that…

Every February since taking office in 2015, Mayor Muriel Bowser has held a series of public events with the stated purpose of allowing DC residents to give meaningful input into the District’s budget. Billed as “Budget Engagement Forums,”…