Three D.C. budget fights we’re watching

Now that Mayor Bowser has launched her price range, the D.C. Council will spend the following a number of weeks tinkering with the plan earlier than a last vote.

Sure, however: With a slowing financial system, it is going to be tougher than earlier than to fund some bold applications.

What’s subsequent: The council is predicted to carry a last price range vote on the finish of Could.

Listed below are three price range fights we’re watching:

Free Metrobus

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Driving the information: Bowser’s price range proposal didn’t put aside cash for this system, leaving the D.C. Council to search for funding.

Catch up fast: The free public transit thought was spearheaded by council member Charles Allen together with chair Phil Mendelson. However getting it executed is difficult.

• There’s some dispute over how a lot it is going to price. Eliminating fares for Metro buses in D.C. and creating 24-hour service on some routes will price about $45 million yearly, in line with the chief monetary officer’s estimate from final December.
• However the mayor’s workplace believes the actual price shall be larger.

Buses had been initially alleged to grow to be free this summer season, however lower-than-estimated metropolis revenues threw a wrench in that plan.

What we’re watching: Allen and Mendelson are nonetheless optimistic about discovering funding to eradicate bus fares later this yr.

Home staff

The D.C. Council final yr handed a invoice that will lengthen office protections to home staff, together with gardeners, nannies, cleaners, and private assistants. However an absence of funding within the mayor’s price range threatens its implementation.

Catch up fast: The invoice would require employers to offer D.C.’s estimated 4,000 home staff a written contract earlier than the primary day of employment.

• The contract would come with a begin date, location of labor, a schedule, data on paid and unpaid go away, whether or not a automotive is required, wage, and pay schedule.

Sure, however: The estimated price of implementing and imposing the brand new rules is $2.5 million by way of fiscal 2026. Bowser’s price range disregarded the funding after the chief monetary officer final yr mentioned there wasn’t sufficient cash for it.

• With out funding, no a part of the regulation may be carried out.

What they’re saying: “You all handed numerous laws topic to appropriations, and we could not fund all of it,” Bowser informed the council in late March in relation to the home staff invoice.

Child bonds

Bowser’s price range has no continued funding for D.C.’s “child bonds” program — as soon as heralded as a significant funding in ending intergenerational poverty.

Catch up fast: In 2021, D.C. authorized $32 million over 4 years to implement a program that would offer a belief fund to eligible youngsters born to low-income D.C. households. The fund would obtain an preliminary $500 deposit after which annual $1,000 deposits till the kid turns 18.

Sure, however: The mayor’s price range, which doesn’t embrace funding for this system past fiscal 2023, is “successfully ending this system earlier than the federal government was in a position to launch this assist,” the DC Fiscal Coverage Institute writes in a weblog submit.

The opposite aspect: D.C.’s chief monetary officer mentioned final November there are sufficient funds to fund the laws by way of fiscal 2026.