This morning, the D.C. Council got their first chance to comment publicly about Mayor Vince Gray’s 2012 budget, and a large majority of the comments were supportive.
Gray arrived to the Wilson Building about twenty minutes late, and it then took a little under an hour for him to get his chance to go on the record. Each Councilmember had up to five minutes to discuss their reactions to the proposal, an allowance which most took full advantage of. (Marion Barry, for example, used his time to remind everyone that he served 16 years as the city’s mayor and then suggested moving hundreds of police officers from desk jobs to the street.)
Many of the city’s legislators were complimentary of the budget proposal. Council Chair Kwame Brown — who has said he wouldn’t vote for a budget including the income taxes Gray had proposed — only briefly touched on the tax issues, choosing to focus praise on Gray’s ability to make “hard choices.” Harry Thomas, Jr. (D-Ward 5) praised the budget and made a comparison to the federal government, urging the Council to “overcome their differences.” (“Let’s man up,” Thomas urged his colleagues.) Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large) said that the budget wasn’t “perfect,” but was a good starting point — while slamming former mayor Adrian Fenty’s budgets, as Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) also proceeded to do. Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) noted that Gray had “spread the pain” across the District, while Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) and Michael A. Brown (Ind.-At-Large) also voiced their support for the proposal.
Even known opponents of the Gray tax hike like Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) and David Catania (Ind.-At-Large) went easier than expected on the budget. Evans, who is firmly against income tax increases, stated that he approved of Gray’s inclusion of combined reporting. The harshest criticism of the first round came from Catania, who railed against the overall increase in the budgets of several agencies, and called Gray’s assertion that the budget was painful “a joke.” Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7) also expressed some mild concern with the tax increase.
Gray is currently in the middle of his 17-page statement and will answer questions from the Council afterwards — for real-time updates from those following the hearing, we highly suggest checking out this site. You can stream live video of the hearing here.
