Pushing for more affordable housing, remaining competitive for businesses, funding Metro, improving roads, spending to help alleviate deep inequalities, saving for an uncertain federal future, funding for the upcoming school year and the long term; it is all a tricky balancing act, and Mayor Muriel Bowser officially picked her 2018 priorities this week.

She is now defending those choices to a Council that spans the gamut from an extremely friendly former staffer to her most bitter political rival, with some in the middle and dozens of social service organizations saying the proposed budget doesn’t go far enough to help vulnerable populations.

“I think our focus needs to be on growing and stabilizing our middle class. We actually lack a middle class according to the CFO,” said freshman lawmaker Robert White, an At-large councilmember, on The Kojo Nnamdi Show today.

Indeed “pathways to the middle class” has been the mayor’s nearly inescapable catchphrase over the past two years. But even within that shared goal, there are schisms about how to divide the $13.8 billion budget.

“I don’t think that we fund enough on three primary things: which are schools, affordable housing, and workforce development,” White argued. “If we are really going to see the average person in the District get up to speed with our growing economy and keep pace, then we have to fund these things.”

At the D.C. Council yesterday, where Bowser presented her budget in detail, she faced particularly sharp questioning from the councilmembers who represent the city’s poorest wards: Trayon White, who holds Marion Barry’s old seat, and Vincent Gray, the former mayor who Bowser defeated in the 2014 primary and now represents Ward 7 again.

“The poor are getting poorer, but there are cranes in the sky and we are growing,” said White, amplifying a persistent sense that much of the city isn’t benefiting from the booming times.

A group of social services organizations agrees, drafting a list of services that they say are underfunded in Bowser’s budget. Among them, they note that a 1.5 percent increase in per student funding falls far short of the 3.5 percent called for by a mayoral task force (and doesn’t keep up with inflation) and funding for homelessness falls short of what is called for in the Homeward DC plan.

They had lobbied the mayor to delay a series of tax cuts that were voted on in 2014, but are only triggered by rising tax incomes. Projections for 2018 revenues put the city on track for more than $100 million in cuts, some of which go to the business community, others of which alleviate tax burdens for individuals.

Bowser opted not to delay them. “I thought it was striking, you know that I was at the Council for two and half, three hours and I didn’t get a single question from any councilmember about delaying tax cuts. Not a single question,” the mayor told DCist later that day. “We are at the point in those tax cuts where $60 million dollars out of the $100 million dollars that just went into effect will effect low and moderate income Washingtonians who are going to have some tax burden relief in this next set of cuts. There’s also some relief on higher income Washingtonians and some relief for D.C. businesses that we know will turn around those investments back into the community.”

And in explaining the budget to the Council, Bowser notes increased investments in affordable housing ($10 million to preserve existing units), spending to protect TANF program, additional funds to expand childcare slots ($15 million), and more than $1 billion in capital expenditures to improve schools and roads.

In defending the decision not to draw down reserves or delay the cuts, she has an ally in the fiscally conservative Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans, who warned that just because the city is flush now, it won’t necessarily always be. And business groups have championed the tax reform, saying it will improve competitiveness and help diversify the District’s economy at a time when the city needs it most.

But Bowser also has a new thorn on the dais in the form of her predecessor.

“This budget is not a roadmap to inclusive prosperity; it is a path that leads to nowhere,” Gray said, sparring over funding to build a new hospital east of the Anacostia River. “We could have solved this before now. I don’t think it’s that complicated. What are we supposed to tell the people on the east end of the District of Columbia? … This doesn’t send a message at all that we’re serious.”

“Our commitment is clear that we want to build a hospital,” Bowser said. “Respectfully Mr. Gray, I would disagree.”

Reporting contributed by Rachel Kurzius.

Previously:
Should D.C. Stick To Its Schedule To Cut Taxes?