The fate of the budget approved by D.C. Council in late May was thrown into doubt on Monday, after D.C. Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey DeWitt said he could not sign off on the Council’s plan to take $49 million from Events D.C., the sports and convention authority, and use it to fund repairs on the city’s aging public housing units.

The possibility of DeWitt refusing to certify the budget is a significant bump on what’s usually a well-trodden path to hash out the city’s spending plan for the upcoming year — and one that at least one seasoned lawmaker says is virtually unprecedented.

(“It’s the first time since I’ve been here that the CFO has not certified a budget,” said Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans, who has served on the Council for 28 years.

The high-stakes legal battle started last month when D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said he had found more than $180 million in unused money in Events D.C.’s reserves, and wanted to claim $49 million of it to pay for public housing repairs and to eliminate a small tax, paid by hotel guests, that is used to upgrade the city’s 911 dispatch system.

The D.C. Housing Authority says the city’s thousands of units of public housing are in dire need of repairs and upgrades, to the tune of $2.2 billion. Mendelson said the money he had found could be used to start addressing some of the most critical needs, like abating lead, asbestos and mold found in many buildings.

But DeWitt objected, saying that by law any reserves should go to paying down the debt the city owes on the construction of the Washington Convention Center, which Events D.C. operates. Mendelson said lawyers he had consulted argued otherwise, and on May 28, the Council gave final approval to the budget for fiscal year 2020, which starts on Oct. 1.

On Monday, DeWitt raised the stakes in a four-page letter to Mendelson, saying two law firms had agreed with his contention that the Council could not merely claim the money from Events D.C.’s reserves. As such, DeWitt said he could not certify the budget as passed, as is required by law.

Without his approval of the budget, D.C. could see a downgrading of its bond rating, or be left with something more often expected from the federal side of Washington: a government shutdown.

“Without fiscal certification,” DeWitt wrote in the letter, “there is no approved budget to support the operations of the District government for the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2019.”

DeWitt did concede that some of the money in Events D.C.’s reserves — $48 million combined from 2017 and 2018 — should have been made available to the city for general use, but had not been. He said he had directed for that money to be turned over, but existing law would set it aside for the city’s reserves, capital expenses and affordable housing.

Mendelson was said to be meeting with staff on Monday evening and unavailable for comment. But, in an emailed statement, Mendelson said he disagreed with DeWitt over how that money from Events D.C. should be used.

“We do not agree that the CFO acted correctly by assigning the $48 million to the [reserves], especially when the Council had already stated its intent to make this money available for public housing repairs and tax relief,” he said.

But Evans says DeWitt may be in a stronger position in the debate, given his role in signing off on the city’s annual budget. By law, the budget has to be certified as being balanced.

“At the end of the day the CFO has the final call,” he said. “It appears that if the CFO were to let this go through, it could really endanger our bond rating.”

City officials make an annual visit to New York over the summer to meet with bond-rating agencies, where in the past they have seen rating upgrades that have raised the city’s financial standing and decreased its borrowing costs.

Evans says he thinks the Council will have to redo the budget, and find the $49 million from other sources — whether by making cuts to other programs or raising the money somehow.

In his letter, DeWitt offered to help “develop and evaluate alternatives that will produce a budget that can be certified.” But time is also limited, as the Council goes on its two-month summer recess in mid-July.

In his own statement, Mendelson sought to downplay DeWitt’s threat of not certifying the budget, and said that the approved plan had been worded to have enough wiggle room should there be legal disagreements.

“I also believe that the certification issue can be handled because the dollars at issue are budgeted in a separate account where they can be spent only if available,” he said.

This story first appeared on WAMU.