Thinks D.C. is like teenagers. (Getty Images)
District residents voted earlier this week by overwhelming proportions to back a Home Rule Charter amendment that could give D.C. control over its own budget. Now all that stands between the city and autonomy over its own finances is Congress. But some members of the House are going to be tough sells.
Like Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.), a member of the House Oversight Committee—which has jurisdiction over the District of Columbia—who thinks that giving D.C. budget autonomy would be like giving bales of cash to free-spending kids.
“Well, when my kids were young teenagers, they always wanted budget autonomy too,” Mica told Fox 5 after an offsite hearing on the federal government’s D.C. real estate portfolio.
In Mica’s view, the District might well be worthy of managing its own finances some day, but not yet. “We must remain vigilant,” he told the television station. Never mind the fact that 83 percent of voters in Tuesday’s election backed the referendum, giving Congress a 35-day window to review the measure and either snuff it out or send it to President Obama’s desk for final approval.
District officials, however, did not take kindly to being compared to a bunch of irresponsible teenagers. “It shows a lack of understanding about the district,” Pedro Ribeiro, a spokesman for Mayor Vince Gray, told DCist. “We get federal funds just like every other state. Residents of D.C. pay federal taxes. Residents of D.C. fight in the military.”
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), who said following Tuesday’s vote that she is engaging in discussions with the House’s Republican leaders about how to shepherd through the budget autonomy referendum, was just as unenthused by her Floridian colleague. “John has been a friend and even when we have disagreed, he has never been patronizing or insulting,” she said in a statement released by her office yesterday. “Therefore, I would like to ask him whether these were in fact his words. If so, I would hope he would explain them or express regret.”
But judging by the Fox 5 tape, those lines about carelessly spending kids were indeed spoken from Mica’s mouth. And Ribeiro sees some fiscal hypocrisy in the congressman’s attitude. “It’s insulting,” he said. “We’ve more than proven the fact that we can handle our own finances. The District of Columbia has shown that it is far more capable of budgeting than the U.S. Congress.”
The District finished the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2012 with a $417 million surplus, which was deposited into the city’s rainy day fund. Congress, meanwhile, hasn’t passed a budget since 2009, and the federal government last year ran a deficit of $1.089 trillion.
