Washington D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) announced that he will undo Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s (D) most contentious budget cuts.

The city’s budget has become a major area of contention, following Chief Financial Officer Glen Lee’s demand to divert funds to the city’s emergency fund, forcing Bowser to undertake budget cuts unpopular with progressives. Mendelson explicitly rejected the budget cuts, setting up a political fight between the three.

“The budget I will present will restore most if not all of the Pay Equity Fund, and do so by rejecting the Chief Financial Officer’s insistence that $217 million needs to be added to the District’s already-robust reserve funds,” he wrote. “The CFO exceeded his authority when he told the Mayor and me that the reserves need to be topped-off now — because the law provides otherwise.”

In the Friday newsletter, Mendelson threw all the blame onto Lee while offering support for Bowser.

“This was a policy choice he forced on the Mayor,” he said, “and I’ve made clear to him that I will not comply.”

Bowser protested Lee’s request, but insisted her hands were tied. In her final outline, which balanced the budget, Bowser proposed $500 million in budget cuts to city programs, including the Early Childhood Educator Pay Equity Fund, which cost the city $70 million annually.

The program was set up using COVID-19 emergency funds, leaving the city unable to pay for it following the cessation of payments. Progressives and teacher advocates demanded Bowser keep the program, but the mayor was opposed to raising taxes.

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The preferred method of activists in Washington would be to raise the capital gains tax, which would mostly hit upper-income earners. The far-left Fair Budget Coalition urged Bowser to raise capital income taxes up to 14%. The letter from the group said the purpose was to distribute wealth from mostly white people to black people and other minority groups.

“DC should tax wealth more to reduce DC’s racial wealth gap,” the letter said. “The supermajority of wealth in DC and the nation is held in the hands of the few, with Black residents holding very little wealth compared to white residents. The concentration of white wealth stems from centuries of racist policies and practices that have stripped Black people of wealth they produced while allowing white people to amass extreme wealth and grow it across generations.”