Photo by Mark Poblete.

In hopes of closing a $500 million budget deficit, Mayor Adrian Fenty’s proposed FY 2011 budget cut funding for plenty of programs — and D.C. voting rights and statehood lobbying wasn’t spared.

The Washington Times reported today that the usual public funding set aside for advocacy and education efforts geared toward D.C. voting rights and statehood didn’t make it into Fenty’s budget, leaving many activists fearing that the city will be left with no resources to fight for itself if Republicans take over Congress in this year’s elections.

In 2010, the District allocated $100,000 for voting rights and statehood outreach, advocacy and education, down from $500,000 per year the three years prior and a high of $1 million in the final year of Mayor Anthony Williams’ second term in office. Until 2007, Congress prohibited the use of local funds for lobbying on voting rights, but Democrats lifted that prohibition after winning back the House.

Shadow Representative Mike Panetta was among the activists to express disappointment with the budget cut. “For many years, Congress mandated that the District couldn’t spend our local tax dollars to lobby for statehood or expanded home rule. With those restrictions now removed, it’s painfully ironic that the Mayor’s proposed budget eliminates what modest funding there was for these efforts,” Panetta said in a statement. “If the final budget lacks any resources to fund statehood advocacy efforts, the Mayor and the Council are essentially embracing the status quo and sending a signal that we’ve given up the fight.”

Staff in the office of Council member Michael A. Brown (I-At Large), who chairs the D.C. Council’s Special Committee on Statehood and Self-Determination, assure DCist that Brown is working to get the funding reinstated. Given the many cuts Fenty has proposed and the varied groups vying to get their funding back, though, it’s not clear whether he will be successful.