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Council approves $4.2 billion budget for fiscal 2005
(Published May 17, 2004)

By KATHRYN SINZINGER
Staff Writer

D.C. City Council has unanimously approved a $4.2 billion city budget for fiscal 2005 that includes a special "contingency reserve" of $50 million that may be restored to the mayor's original spending requests if agencies can prove the funds are needed.

In presenting the budget for council approval on May 14, Chairman Linda W. Cropp said placing $50 million in a reserve fund – rather than outright cutting it from the budget, as some council members sought to do earlier in the week – will "make sure it is being spent for the purposes that it is meant to be spent."

Mayoral spokesman Tony Bullock called the inclusion of such a fund "a bizarre new feature" that "raises a lot of questions about who gets to open that box and use those funds."

"It doesn't reduce the total spending dollars [by] one dollar," Bullock said.

Mayor Anthony A. Williams' original budget submission to the council on March 29 totaled $4.2 billion in local funds. The city receives additional funding from the federal government, increasing the District's annual operating budget to about $6 billion.

"We're going to look very closely at what's been done here and then the mayor will decide if he wants to exercise his veto or not," Bullock said.

Mayor Williams left on the evening of May 14 for Rome, Italy, to attend an international conference, after spending the day at a National League of Cities meeting in East Point, Ga. The mayor was expected to return to Washington on May 17.

D.C. law gives the mayor 10 days to decide whether to sign or veto legislation after the council approves it. If signed by the mayor, the budget bill would then be forwarded to Congress for a required 30-day review. Congress retains "ultimate jurisdiction" over the District under a provision of the U.S. Constitution. Nine votes from the 13-member city council would be needed to override a mayoral veto.

While not changing the bottom line in the mayor's proposed budget for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1, the council rearranged several million dollars to reflect disagreement with the mayor's spending priorities. An expected $50 million windfall in sales tax revenue, identified after the mayor submitted his budget plan to the council, allowed the council to eliminate several new or increased taxes and fees that the mayor had proposed to balance the budget and to fully fund the Housing Production Trust Fund for affordable housing projects.

The council significantly increased funding above levels proposed by the mayor for the D.C. Public Library system, targeting some of the money to allow libraries to expand their hours of operation. The budget also includes funding for construction of new buildings to replace the Francis Gregory, Georgetown, Petworth, Mount Pleasant and Southeast branch libraries.

More money also was earmarked for D.C. Public Schools, the Department of Parks and Recreation, and a new "Save Our Youth" initiative.

Among cuts made in the mayor's budget proposal was the transfer of $600,000 from the proposed $956,000 budget for the Mayor's Call Center to help increase the public library's budget.

Included in two separate contingency reserve funds established by the council was money transferred from specific line items in the mayor's budget proposal.

One of the funds includes $17.9 million from the Department of Child and Family Services, $11 million from the Department of Mental Health, $3 million from the Department of Health, $2 million from the Department of Human Services, $1 million from the Office of the Inspector General, $500,000 from the Department of Employment Services and $375,000 from the Office of the Secretary of the District.

The other fund includes $4 million from the Office of Property Management, $2.7 million from the Department of Mental Health's energy and security costs, $2 million from road repairs, $1.4 million from Oak Hill Academy, $1 million from the Office of the Chief Technology Officer, $1 million from the Metropolitan Police Department's overtime expenses, $1 million from the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, $411,000 from the State Education Office and $1 million from debt service due to the contingent spending reductions.