Cuts For Everyone But The People Proposing Them
During a late-night debate over cuts needed to close a $188 million gap in the District's budget late last year, Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) loudly complained that while the District's government agencies were being forced to cut programs and staff, the offices of the Chief Financial Officer and mayor – the one proposing and defending all the cuts – weren't making the same sacrifices. His point was clear -- if we're all being asked to trim costs, everyone should be taking a hit.
With the city facing a significantly larger budget deficit for 2012 -- $600 million has been floated as the possible gap between revenues and expenditures -- it seems that Graham's words are now more appropriate than ever. Sadly, key officials and institutions don't seem to be getting the message.
Over the weekend, the Post's Mike DeBonis reported that D.C. Council Chair Kwame Brown's "fully-loaded" SUV was costing taxpayers almost $2,000 a month. (Money which could be utilized for any number of other things.) Moreover, the Post's Nikita Stewart found that senior officials in the administration of Mayor Vincent Gray were taking in way more than their counterparts had during Mayor Adrian Fenty's tenure. Gray's chief of staff, Gerri Mason Hall, makes 25 percent more than her predecessor, while his communications director, Dr. Linda Wharton Boyd, rakes in $40,000 more per year.
Under such circumstances, you'd expect the D.C. Council to jump into action. Of course, there's a problem -- the Council doesn't really have a lot of credibility on issues of pay these days. Earlier this month, a survey of local legislatures across the country found that our lawmakers enjoy the second-highest salaries of any of their counterparts nationwide -- only Los Angeles pays its city legislators more. A number of councilmembers defended their pay, noting that the D.C. Council acts as a local, county and statewide legislative body. Regardless, the ones doing the defending were also amongst those that have lucrative side jobs, some pulling in an additional $250,000 on top of their $120,000 annual council salary.
Sure, cutting a luxury SUV and forcing city officials -- both in Gray's administration and in the council -- to take pay cuts won't be but a drop in the bucket of the possible $600 million budget deficit. At most, we're talking about a few hundred thousand dollars in savings. But cuts have to start somewhere, and even small cuts are cuts all the same. Moreover -- and the District's elected officials should know this better than anyone -- optics matter. If you're forcing social service providers to take big hits, it helps your argument a lot if you're not doing it while your inflated pay remains untouched. Little more than symbolic it may be, but Mayor Gray being furloughed today alongside most of the District's government shows that at least Gray understands the political value of at least appearing to share in the sacrifice.
Brown seems to be looking to ditch the SUV, and a number of candidates for the At-Large April 26 Special Election have already said that they feel that council pay should be cut. Most councilmembers, however, have remained quiet on whether they should take a hit or, in the case of Sekou Biddle, flip-flopped between stances.
Regardless of what happens, though, both of these stories are sure to affect the coming discussions on the 2012 budget, which will kick off in April. There's bound to be a lot of proposed cuts and cost-saving measures to consider -- hopefully Gray and the Council will include themselves among them.