Council Pushes Back, Restoring Cut Funds and Reasserting Appropriator's Role • Council of the District of Columbia

While life at the Council is full of deadlines, there are three that even the thought of violating will send Council staff over the edge. They are truly the third rail of deadlines for the Council. And they are sacrosanct because of where they are laid out: in the District’s Home Rule Charter.

The first is the biennial swearing-in of new mayors, councilmembers, and attorneys-general, which must be completed (in a public ceremony organized by the Council) prior to noon on January 2 in every odd-numbered year.

The second and the third ironclad, stress-inducing, inviolate deadlines require the Council to vote twice on the mayor’s proposed budget—once within fifty-six days of its submission, and again within seventy days. The Council may not always start its meetings on time—but it always sticks the landing on these three crucial Charter deadlines.

It must be remembered that when the mayor presents a budget, it is technically only a proposal—a proposal that mayoral and agency employees spend a whole year compiling. This year, like last year, the mayoral budget submission to the Council was many weeks late, for which there were explanations but no excuses. The mayor’s delay in submitting the budget pushed back the start and end dates for the Council’s budget approval countdown, and the lack of clarity regarding its submission date impacted the time available to the Council to analyze the budget and gather public input on it. As a result, the Council’s traditional non-budgetary legislative rhythm, normally planned to coordinate and alternate with the budget schedule, was also disrupted (likely leading to tighter legislative traffic in the fall and winter.

But despite the significantly late submission of the budget, despite having a much smaller staff, and despite only having fifty-six days to consider and take its first votes on the budget, at a rare Monday Legislative Meeting, the Council hit its mark and approved the primary bills that comprise the District’s budget.

In our Home Rule Charter-designated budgetary role, the Council is the District’s sole appropriator. With problematic overspending in some District agencies, and insufficient real-time year-long pushback on these excesses by the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, funding decisions from outside the Council’s purview had de facto been allowed. Through an analysis of initial vs. subsequent estimates of agency overspending, expected revenue increases, spending pressures, and the replenishing of reserves, it was determined that $60 million in current year revenue overages could be put towards the Council’s restoration of cuts made by the mayor to next year’s budget. The remaining $40 million towards a total of $100 million in prior cuts restored by the Council came from other adjustments to next year’s budget.

Commanders Stadium Funding

Much attention has been paid to the Council’s response to the Commanders stadium proposal included in the mayor’s budget proposal. It is important to note that what is commonly referred to as the District budget actually includes multiple pieces of legislation. The two primary bills are the Local Budget Act (which includes the dollars-and-cents of the budget) and the Budget Support Act (which includes the legislative changes needed to implement the aforementioned dollars-and-cents aspects).

However, in cases where such legislative changes are profound, merit rigorous public input, and deserve a more substantial legislative history and record to document their approval, the Council has a long history of breaking such measures out as standalone legislation. In this budget cycle, such was the case with both the Rebalancing Expectations for Neighbors, Tenants, and Landlords (RENTAL) Act and the detailed legislation regarding the Commanders stadium.

However, it is important to note that the committee report accompanying the Council budget proposal specifically states that “The Committee remains committed to reaching a deal that brings the Commanders back to the District, and as such, maintains all Mayoral financial commitments to the team in this budget.” In other words, the full proposed funding for the stadium remains in the budget as approved, and the terms of the deal will proceed separately through an expedited legislative process following the announced July 29 and 30 public hearings on the broken-out, standalone stadium legislation.

Ranked Choice and Tipped Wage

Two substantial changes were made the Council’s budget proposal through amendments that passed at the Legislative Meeting. Both dealt with implementation of initiatives approved in recent years by District voters.

One amendment provided funding for implementation of one of the two primary elements of Initiative 83, a voting reform measure. The half of the initiative that will end the District’s longstanding first-across-the-line plurality voting system and replace it with ranked choice voting was funded in the amended budget, and is expected to be in place in time for the District’s June 2026 primary elections. The half of the initiative that would have also created an open primary system in the District was not funded and will not go into effect in 2026.

The other successful amendment to the Council budget proposal related to Initiative 82, which phased in an elimination of the tipped wage for restaurant and other service workers. The proposed Council budget as introduced at the beginning of the Legislative Meeting would have replaced the phase-out of the tipped wage with new $8 tipped wage, a requirement that employers top off the tipped wage to a super minimum wage of $20 if the inclusion of tips did not earlier exceed this threshold, and a ten percent cap on restaurant service fees.

Via amendment, this proposed system was eliminated, meaning that the District’s present tipped wage, frozen for three months at $10, per emergency legislation passed by the Council at its June 3 Legislative Meeting, will instead remain in place. However, some Councilmembers indicated a replacement compromise measure could be brought forward in time for the Council’s second budget vote on July 28.

Other Changes

Among the other changes approved in the first of its two budget votes, the Council:

fills an unauthorized gap in the mayor’s budget proposal, therefore fully funding the Schools First in Budgeting Act, which mandates that absent large-scale changes such as profound dips in enrollment, no school’s budget should be cut from one year to the next
merges the District’s two violence prevention programs in the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, while also funding the maintenance of six current Cure the Streets sites, currently administered by the Office of the Attorney General
provides $3.1 million for ignition interlock, intelligent speed assistance, point system, vehicle immobilization, and driver curriculum for repeat traffic offenders
restores the Sustainable Energy Trust Fund, including $3.5 million for the Green Bank and $3.4 million for implementation of Healthy Homes and residential electrification
increases the number of Throne self-standing portable restrooms from six to ten
funds prior legislation to combat fraudulent temporary tags by booting and towing vehicles displaying them
partially restores funding for the Office of the Ombudsperson for Children, which the mayor’s proposal had zeroed out
funds targeted substance abuse and behavioral health outreach services
restores the District crime lab’s ability to do DNA testing in-house
restores the requirement that District-funded construction projects of a certain size sign Project Labor Agreements, so workers are better protected
extend the cutoff date for new DC Healthcare Alliance enrollment by two months
maintains the present system of annual Healthcare Alliance recertification, instead of the semi-annual recertification proposed by the mayor
reduces/removes in-person recertification requirements for adult and youth Healthcare Alliance beneficiaries
increases funding for the Truancy Pilot Program by nearly $1 million
restores $500,000 in domestic violence services grant funding cut by the mayor
emphasizes housing preservation as an important counterpart to new construction, including shifting $10 million from a housing preservation loan fund to the Housing Production Trust Fund, where it will be dedicated to housing preservation grants
funds the Small Buildings Program, facilitating building repairs by small buildings’ landlords
provides $6 million in victim services grants
restores funding for the Safe Shores program, which funds support for investigations of physical and sexual violence against youth
partially reverses the mayor’s reduction in per-student facilities funding for charter schools
increases funding for the Early Child Educator Pay Equity Fund by $4 million to cover actual costs in the coming year (though the out years remain unfunded)
increases funding for the Child Care Subsidy Program by $15 million
reverses the mayor’s elimination of the DC Futures program, which provides gap-filling scholarships, coaching and emergency funds for DC students attending three participating DC universities
overturns the mayor’s proposed elimination of the existing ban on the placement of unhoused families in congregate shelters, allowing the ban to remain in place, while providing limited flexibility in certain cases and providing funding to expand shelter capacity
provides $30.6 million in additional funding for affordable housing and homelessness prevention, including additional Targeted Affordable Housing vouchers, one-time Emergency Rental Assistance Program funds, Permanent Supportive Housing vouchers, DC Flex slots, and extended transitional housing for homeless youth
restores annual cost of living adjustment to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, reversing the planned sanctions policy for one year, and phases down the locally-funded benefit for those who exceed the federal 60-month limit on benefits
restores over $20 million of the funding cut by the mayor for the Access to Justice program, which provides legal assistance in civil court cases such as landlord/tenant, debt, and estate/probate cases
undoes an effort by the mayor to make a temporary hotel tax permanent, while restoring $6 million for Destination DC’s tourism marketing
authorizing the DC Health Benefit Exchange to implement a Basic Health Program to maintain health insurance coverage for individuals losing access to Medicaid due to changes in eligibility criteria
provides an additional $8.1 million for DC Public Libraries, to reverse planned cuts in operating hours and restore the collections (book buying) budget

In non-budgetary action at the most recent Legislative Meeting, the Council postponed consideration of the Rebalancing Expectations for Neighbors, Tenants, and Landlords Act until the subsequent Legislative Meeting. It also modified its recess rules to state that the Committee of the Whole (COW), as well as any other committee in the sequential referral stream for a piece of COW legislation, can hold a mark-up during the recess.

Through emergency and temporary legislation, the Council also:

mandated a clear system of advance notification of all residents regarding potential shutoffs of water to multifamily buildings by DC Water in cases of non-payment by the owner
allowed removal of specific heritage trees that would impede construction of a new Long Bridge replacement and a Parkside mixed-use project
increased the maximum weight of autonomous personal delivery devices, in line with new industry standards and practices in other jurisdictions
made modifications to streamline DC probate law

The Council’s next Legislative Meeting is scheduled for Monday, July 28.