Photo by ssteege1.Just when we thought we were done with budgets…they pull us back in. In addition to a hearing on “antique machines” (whatever that means), the D.C. Council will chat tomorrow about the city’s budget for the current year, which must to be revised to include a $107 million revenue influx.
Debate will center on the issue of taxing out-of-state municipal bonds. D.C. Council Chair Kwame Brown told the Examiner that his top priorities for the budget were “adding police officers and not going back and taxing people on their out-of-state municipal bonds” — and while the supplemental budget package Mayor Vince Gray gave the Council last week covers the police aspect, Brown will need to find $13.8 million to do the latter. Gray’s proposal spends nearly three-quarters of the new found money on “spending pressures” — a sterile way of saying that it’ll cover overspending by various city agencies — while the rest of the money would be spent on more police officers and a program to fund school nurses.
The sticking point is a tax on out-of-state bonds — from the looks of it, Brown and Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans are set to grapple with the Mayor to try and free up the substantial amount necessary to cover the revenue which would have been generated by the tax for the current year. (The Council voted to make the tax permanent starting in the 2012 budget.)
The Council will vote on the budget on July 12; documents outlining exactly what Gray has allocated the extra $107 million to can be read below.
