New revenue estimate figures for the District of Columbia released today paint an ever more bleak financial picture for the city. In a letter to the mayor and D.C. Council, District CFO Natwar Gandhi estimated FY2010 revenues are now down an additional $17.7 million, while 2011 looks worse still, with $49.4 million less than originally expected coming into District coffers. This is by no means the first time revenue estimates have been revised downward in…

Cigarette taxes are popular with voters, so it’s no surprise, as we’ve mentioned earlier, that the D.C. Council voted Tuesday to include an additional $1 per-pack cigarette tax in the 2009 budget as a means of making up a predicted shortfall. In a statement released today, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is calling the move, which brings the total tax on a pack of cigarettes in the District of Columbia to $2, a “win-win-win solution…