D.C.’s Approved 2022 Budget Fueled by Fed Funds
By • August 16, 2021 0 752
A slightly amended $17.5 billion, 2022 fiscal budget for the District of Columbia was approved unanimously by the D.C. Council in its second required vote on Aug. 10. Mayor Muriel Bowser said she would sign it even though several of her priorities – including funds to increase the number of police officers in the District – were not included.
Also not included was a proposal by Georgetown’s Ward 2 Council member Brooke Pinto to fund and implement a 35-year, $140 million tax abatement for developers to convert vacant downtown office buildings into housing.
The final budget, after months of negotiation, greatly expands spending on housing and homeless services and grants, increased payments and aid to low-income residents, while also funding incentive grants to businesses and some workers. It refocuses some law enforcement funding to violence interruption programs. A final change last week included an amendment that would significantly boost monthly tax credits for low-income families in the coming years.
The historically high budget was fueled and made possible largely by an influx of federal funds particularly from pandemic emergency money – some of which was delayed in getting to the city because of its non-state status.
Highlights of the new budget include about $5 million to hire new police officers – less than half of what the mayor requested for 170 new personnel. Much of the remainder of the $11 million public safety allocation would go toward violence interruption efforts.
D.C. public and charter schools will receive a 3.6% increase in per-pupil funding as well as expanded school-based mental health programs. A last-minute repurposed $3.2 million also was approved to fund full time librarians in the 36 DCPS schools that do not have them. Job programs and training at the University of the District of Columbia will be funded. Salaries for early educators also will increase from the current $17 to $18 an hour.
For small business relief, the new budget includes $88 million, some to pay overdue rent. The often-criticized Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs will be broken into two separate agencies to focus separately on consumer services and regulation enforcement.
A tax increase on “wealthy” residents — those who make over $250,000 a year — will be used to expand the local tax credit to low- income residents and families and pay out a “monthly refund” of up to $500 that many see as akin to a basic minimum income. A new “baby bonds” program will invest up to $600 a year into trust funds for residents under age 18, that can be used later to pay for college, start a business, or buy a house.
That same tax on the wealthy will provide permanent housing for some 3,000 people in D.C. who are “currently experiencing homelessness.” A new $41 million fund would help residents who are currently living in the country without authorized immigration status and who did not receive any other federal assistance.
Funding for building and preserving (i.e., repairing) affordable housing was dramatically increased to $400 million in the new budget. Some 2800 units of new housing are expected to be produced with the new funds.
The council also approved help for the unemployed including to exempt unemployment benefits from D.C. income tax requirements. Some 10,000 residents who waited for more than two months to get their first unemployment benefits will get a one-time $500 payment.
Analysts say much of the new budget focus – especially the increased city tax on the wealthy — was enabled by the 2020 election of two new progressive lawmakers to the City Council: Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4) and Christina Henderson (I-At Large). The budget shows that the Council’s progressive wing can now wield some power, a Washington Post article concluded.
The 2022 budget will take effect Oct. 21.
