Photo by Bullneck
Well, this is it. The 24th hour. We’ll find out later tonight if there will be a federal government shutdown and, if there is, whether or not the D.C. Council and Mayor Vincent Gray will abide to it and also shut down the D.C. government. They’re all sticking to their word that if there is one, the D.C. government will remain open for business. We’ll see.
Regardless, there’s one question that’s lingers with the impending shutdown, and more pointedly, the Council’s defiance of it: What does this mean for D.C.’s quest for statehood?
A recent poll conducted by Rasmussen Reports indicated that only 25 percent of the country thinks that D.C. should become a state. But Kimberly Perry, executive director of DC Vote—an educational and advocacy organization seeking to end taxation without representation—wasn’t swayed by that low number. She thinks that the reason the results of the poll are so low is because of poor “marketing and communication,” and that “somehow the term ‘statehood’ for people is hard to digest.”
Despite this low national support for D.C. statehood, she also thinks that the impending federal government shutdown could be a good thing. Especially if Gray and the Council stick to their guns.
“This year, it’s different though than past years,” Perry says. “What makes this year different is a couple of things: One, is our city Council has said ‘We’re tired of having this threat of shutting our own government down because Congress can’t come to an agreement on its budget, and we have to stand up and speak out this year.'” She believes that the Council’s act of defiance, by standing up and declaring that every local government employee is essential, firmly establishes D.C.’s independence from Congress’s hold.
“The second piece of this that’s important,” Perry says, “is that because D.C.’s budget is always mingled in federal shutdowns and federal debacles, the District of Columbia voted last April for a budget autonomy referendum, that in surmise, essentially what that referendum does is gives us freedom over our own budget.” Indeed, the passing of Referendum 8 last April freed D.C.’s budget, allowing the District to spend local tax revenue without having to wait for congressional approval. One step close to D.C. statehood.
Unfortunately, that referendum doesn’t go into effect until January 1, 2014. “We are literally just a few months short of being able to do this,” Perry says. “But we’re so pleased the D.C. Council and the mayor are standing up and speaking out, educating Americans all over the country and really the world to say ‘we’re tired of our budget being caught in the middle of Congress’s problems.”
