By unanimous voice vote, the D.C. Council approved the $21 billion fiscal year 2025 budget on Wednesday, reversing budget cuts requested by Mayor Muriel Bowser.
“The budget the mayor proposed was criticized as less about ‘shared sacrifice’ and more about cutting programs that help the last, the lost and the least. The council, collectively, has reworked this and our budget resets the District on the path to fight poverty and promote social justice,” D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said at the legislative meeting.
While Bowser proposed cutting the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund, which subsidizes pay for day care and preschool teachers, the council restored it at a rate of $70 million per year.
Under the terms of the mayor’s budget, Mendelson said about 80 of the city’s public schools would have been forced to lay off teachers or other educators, but the council’s budget restores $25 million to the school budget.
In a letter to Mendelson ahead of the vote, Bowser expressed approval that the council’s budget would include funding for a new correctional facility, a youth indoor sports complex at RFK Stadium, and would restore funding for downtown revitalization.
But the mayor charged that the council is ignoring the reality that the city is taking in less money than it’s spending. She said the council has reversed her plan for nearly $1 billion in savings from program efficiencies and another $1 billion in program reductions.
“I encourage Councilmembers to pick areas of spending each is willing to tackle and work with us over the summer. Without a dramatic change in our revenue growth, many of the programs the Council is championing this year will be on the chopping block in a few short months. By working together on this important task, we can do the work needed before next year’s budget formulation,” Bowser wrote.
The council’s budget raises revenue by hiking the property tax rate on high-value homes — most residences worth more than $2.5 million. The council budget also raises revenue by raising utility taxes for residents and businesses.
The council also included funding for 577 housing vouchers and restored full funding to the Baby Bonds program — the 2021 program in which the District creates a trust fund for each new child born to a low-income family providing each child up to $1,000 per year until age 18.
“We took a proposal and transformed it into one that is more sensitive to the needs of residents,” Mendelson said, “especially those needing the safety net, and more sensitive to business attraction and retention.”
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