The D.C. Council made some last-minute additions and subtractions to the 2026 budget on Monday ahead of its first vote on the proposal.
The budget proposed by the D.C. Council has been adjusted from the version Mayor Muriel Bowser put forward in May.
Ranked choice voting
Among the additions was funding for part of Initiative 83, which was approved by voters in November. The funding amendment was introduced by At-Large Council member Christina Henderson and Ward 1 Council member Brianne Nadeau.
“I’m thrilled that we were able to identify the funding today to advance ranked choice voting,” Nadeau said ahead of a vote on the amendment.
The decision will mean voters will be able to choose more than one candidate on the ballot. The Democratic Party in D.C. was among the vocal critics of the initiative.
Among those against the amendment was At-Large Council member Kenyan McDuffie.
“It’s plenty documented that it’s a confusing system, that it forces voters to try to game out all these different choices rather than vote for the person they actually support,” McDuffie said.
Initiative 83 also included open primaries in the city, but that portion of the measure was not funded.
Tipped minimum wage
A couple of other contentious items are stuffed into the budget.
The city has long debated how to compensate tipped workers, with residents voting to approve Initiative 82 in 2022 to set a tipped minimum wage and critics arguing those proposals hurt businesses, diners and eventually employees.
As a result of the vote, the city was in the process of raising the pay of tipped workers to the standard minimum wage by 2027, until it was paused after pushback from restaurant owners and other stakeholders.
Bowser has looked to repeal Initiative 82 in the 2026 budget.
In the council’s budget proposal, they took yet another approach.
Council Chairman Phil Mendelson explained Sunday the tipped minimum wage would be set at $8 an hour. Employers would be required to cover the difference between the employees’ earnings, including tips, and $20 an hour. It also allows for automatic adjustment of the tipped minimum wage for inflation.
That could be seen as a compromise on Initiative 82. That legislation was expected to raise the tipped minimum wage from $10 to $12 on July 1 but the D.C. Council opted to pause the increase during an emergency vote last month.
Ward 4 Council member Janeese Lewis George slammed the compromise and the proposed repeal of the measure.
“It is anything, but it does not reflect the input of workers, nor the will of the voters who passed initiative 82 of 74% of the vote,” George said.
She presented an amendment that removed the repeal from the budget, and it passed, though the council seems poised to hammer out another compromise before the second vote on the budget, set for Monday, July 28.
RFK Stadium site
Bowser lumped funding for the redevelopment of the RFK Stadium campus in her 2026 budget. The deal would let the Commanders build a new stadium, team offices and parking garages at the old stadium site.
The council said it “recognizes the once-in-a-generation opportunity the District has to redevelop the RFK campus and bring the Commanders back to their rightful home in the District. However, the Committee also recognizes that the Council needs more time to consider the proposed deal, which would commit the District to spending well above $1 billion over the coming decade.”
Mendelson is among those who were critical of the “overspending” allocated in the budget over the weekend.
The budget includes about a $500 million commitment from D.C. to help build the stadium plus $365 million from the city and Events D.C. for parking garages.
The council has separated out some of the development funding into stand-alone legislation, separate from the budget bill. That legislation would have the city contribute another $202 million for infrastructure improvements and tax abatements.
WTOP’s Valerie Bonk and Jessica Kronzer contributed to this report.
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