Photo by Dsade

At a news conference earlier today to discuss Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton’s standing in the upcoming 113th Congress, Norton and Mayor Vince Gray fielded questions about how the District might be impacted if Congress and the White House do not strike a deficit reduction deal by midnight next Monday.

Under the provisions of a deal reached in 2011, all branches of the federal government will be forced to make mandatory and sweeping cuts to their payrolls unless the Obama administration and Congress can arrange a long-term plan to reduce the federal government’s debt. Gray said that the cuts, known as sequestration, would sharply hurt the District’s own coffers.

“We would experience reductions in our income, sales and property tax in excess of $50 million,” Gray said. He added that because D.C. is so wedded to the federal government, losing the revenue provided by so many government jobs could send the city back into a recession.

Norton said that in Congress, she has been in contact with her colleagues from Maryland and Virginia, which collectively with D.C. would be “disproportionately” by federal sequestration.

“This region must not let sequester happen,” she said.

If the United States tumbles over the so-called “fiscal cliff,” nearly all Americans would see their income taxes rise back to the levels of the 1990s. And while D.C. families would be among the least affected in the nation, Maryland residents would see the second-largest increase.

Better start hitting those Starbucks!