{"id":297,"date":"2019-06-01T00:04:14","date_gmt":"2019-06-01T00:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/?p=297"},"modified":"2019-06-01T00:09:19","modified_gmt":"2019-06-01T00:09:19","slug":"d-c-budget-2020-lots-of-money-few-bold-initiatives-the-washington-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/297\/","title":{"rendered":"D.C. budget 2020: Lots of money, few bold initiatives – The Washington Post"},"content":{"rendered":"

www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/dc-politics\/spinning-its-wheels-lots-of-money-few-bold-initiatives-in-2020-dc-budget\/2019\/05\/30\/19f7475e-82ef-11e9-95a9-e2c830afe24f_story.html?utm_term=.f91d251d058b&w…<\/a>
\n\u2018Spinning its wheels\u2019: Lots of money, few bold initiatives in 2020 D.C. budget Perry Stein
\nD.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D), in a 2018 photo. D.C. elected officials argued over some aspects of the $15.5 billion budget approved this week. (Alex Wong\/Getty Images) It was not immediately clear who emerged as the winner from the bitter infighting among the District\u2019s elected officials over the $15.5 billion budget approved this week.
\nBut some critics say there was a definite set of losers: District residents desperate for bold government action to combat the city\u2019s most pressing problems, such as a scarcity of affordable housing and a range of inequities that beset the nation\u2019s capital.
\nThe spending plan that D.C. lawmakers voted to finalize Tuesday includes only modest increases in funding for existing housing programs. In some ways, struggling neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River may have been left worse off: Some of the city\u2019s poorest public schools will see less funding next year, while Southeast Washington\u2019s public hospital has been put on a starvation diet.
\nAbsent from the spending plan are grand strategies to share the city\u2019s prosperity more evenly across divides of race and class, a goal Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) has repeatedly cited for her second term. While D.C. Council members have largely endorsed her vision, they did little in the budget process to realize it, critics say.
\n\u201cIn a city as prosperous as D.C., with a growing population and growing incomes, to pass a budget that actually cuts funding for our poorest schools and leaves our safety net hospital at risk of closure, and makes only limited progress on affordable housing, is both disappointed and surprising,\u201d said Ed Lazere, executive director of the left-leaning D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute. \u201cWe should be able to do better. We should be able to harness our prosperity to address the things that really matter to the future and to D.C.\u2019s residents.\u201d
\nThose failures are all the more galling, critics say, because of the city\u2019s enviable financial position. Unlike many other American cities, whose budgets have cratered as the result of soaring pension costs, shrinking populations and other problems, the District has been awash in cash from a booming local economy and rising population. Tax revenue regularly outruns city officials\u2019 projections, providing spending flexibility that is all but unheard of in the realm of local government.
\nThere are early signs the city\u2019s economy is cooling off. Some worry that if bold action isn\u2019t taken now to tackle deep-seated problems, it will be even less likely under tighter budgets.
\n[D.C. mayor, council offer competing visions on affordable housing]
\n\u201cWe do have enough money to address a lot of the challenges in this city, but there\u2019s no indication that the money that\u2019s being spent is actually solving the problems. We might not be falling backward, but I\u2019m not seeing even baby steps forward,\u201d said Chuck Thies, a longtime Democratic strategist in the District. \u201cThis city, when it comes to the big issues, is spinning its wheels.\u201d
\nJohn Falcicchio, the mayor\u2019s chief of staff, said the budget does address the District\u2019s urgent concerns.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s a lot in the budget that does tackle our biggest issues,\u201d he said, pointing to affordable housing programs. \u201cIf that is the issue that\u2019s top of mind for residents, then what we put forth addressed that.\u201d
\nBut the fate of affordable housing initiatives in the budget for fiscal 2020, which begins Oct. 1, illustrates the halting approach to big problems that some observers criticize.
\nBowser had initially proposed $55 million in new money for housing programs \u2014 funded with increased taxes and transactions involving high-end commercial real estate \u2014 including $20 million aimed specifically at spurring construction of affordable housing for the middle class. The council, while preserving the tax increases, reduced her proposed spending levels across the board, while directing some new funds to boost housing vouchers for low-income residents.
\nThe city ended up with moderate increases to existing programs \u2014 annual investment in a trust fund to create and preserve affordable housing grew from $100 million to $116 million, while spending on housing vouchers increased by about $18.4 million. Dollars were cut from a separate housing preservation fund, and the $20 million for middle-income housing was replaced with a tax abatement worth $2.8 million next year.
\nAs they made modest adjustments to housing programs, elected leaders engaged in bitter debate over much smaller topics. The mayor repeatedly sparred with the council on social media over the planned location of a single high school. She ultimately got her way, with Banneker Academic High School moving to a campus in Shaw that some had wanted to devote to a new middle school.
\nCouncil members spent two hours Tuesday arguing with one another before the matter was decided, with Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8), whose ward includes struggling high schools whose budgets are being slashed, using profanity to vent at Chairman Phil Mendelson (D).
\n[D.C. is thriving. Why do some school budgets appear to be shrinking?]
\n\u201cThe rhetoric you just gave to me is what we call in, in, in \u2014 what\u2019s the word I want to use \u2014 ebonics, bulls—. Because the schools in our community are getting the short end of the stick time and time again,\u201d White said.
\nDespite an overall increase in education spending, some schools are facing budget cuts amid dwindling enrollment, a problem most acute in the city\u2019s low-income neighborhoods. Some education activists lamented that the Banneker fight overshadowed that graver budget dilemma confronting the city\u2019s school system.
\n\u201cWhile I think Banneker and Shaw is an important issue, the council spent two hours sounding like a school board,\u201d said Markus Batchelor, the Ward 8 representative on the D.C. State Board of Education. \u201cI have [schools] in Ward 8 that are taking pretty steep cuts and that\u2019s thousands of kids who are not going to get the services that they need. I am disappointed that the council didn\u2019t pay any attention to that.\u201d
\nWard 8 could also be hard hit by potential service cuts at United Medical Center, the only hospital east of the Anacostia. The council approved a $22.1 million operating subsidy for the public hospital, about half what hospital officials say they need.
\nMendelson said the fact that the council had few things more substantial to argue about than the school location was a good sign.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s typical that when you have a bill as important as the budget there is going to be something people argue over and the fact it was over [Banneker and Shaw] says to me the budget, from the viewpoint of the council and work of the council and committees, was a success.\u201d
\nBut Bryan Weaver, a former advisory neighborhood commissioner in Adams Morgan, said that for now the inability of the mayor and 13-member council to come together to take on the District\u2019s big problems is hindering the pursuit of big solutions.
\n\u201cEveryone really wants to find a way to combat the housing crisis that we\u2019re in, and everybody wants to fix D.C. Public Schools,\u201d Weaver said. \u201cThe problem is that there\u2019s 14 different visions of what that looks like.\u201d
\nRead more:
\nD.C. Council approves $15.5 billion budget in rancorous debate over priorities
\nShould cities subsidize housing for families making $141,000 a year?
\nD.C. auditor says mayor\u2019s budget is \u2018not fiscally responsible\u2019
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Mary Bolton 202-390-1208<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/dc-politics\/spinning-its-wheels-lots-of-money-few-bold-initiatives-in-2020-dc-budget\/2019\/05\/30\/19f7475e-82ef-11e9-95a9-e2c830afe24f_story.html?utm_term=.f91d251d058b&w… \u2018Spinning its wheels\u2019: Lots of money, few bold initiatives in 2020 D.C. budget Perry Stein D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D), in a 2018 photo. D.C. elected officials argued over some aspects of the $15.5 billion budget approved this week. (Alex Wong\/Getty Images) It was not immediately clear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-housingarchive"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}