The path to a finalized fiscal year 2024 budget of $19.2 billion included robust discussion about excluded workers, SNAP benefits and funding for violence prevention programs.
During the D.C. Council’s May 30 session, Council member Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4) successfully introduced an amendment that diverts excess revenue to funding SNAP programs and reestablishing the $20 million in COVID relief funds that D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) took from excluded workers — a group that includes returning citizens and undocumented D.C. residents.
Meanwhile, Council member Brooke Pinto’s amendment, which the D.C. Council also approved, sets aside $150,000 in funds that had originally been intended for the C&O Canal for the T.R.I.G.G.E.R. Project, Yaayme and another local violence prevention program.
However, a large portion of the Tuesday afternoon budget discussion centered on amendments introduced by Council member Trayon White (D-Ward 8). Though White had six amendments on the agenda, council members spent significant time discussing those dealing with the construction of recreation centers in Fort Greble Park and on the campus of Bard High School Early College DC.
To fund these endeavors, White’s amendments took dollars that the District’s Department of Transportation set aside for Ward 8 traffic safety projects on Wheeler Road and Alabama Avenue. Concerned about the funding source, Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D), Council member Charles Allen (D-Wards 6), and Council member Christina Henderson (I-At large) pushed back against White’s efforts, citing motor vehicle crashes and traffic fatalities in the aforementioned areas.
Another area of concern was the proliferation of recreation centers in the areas surrounding Bard and Fort Greble Park, where students and residents can walk to a facility within a mile of their homes.
For the Ward 8 council member, that particular point didn’t hold weight in the face of violent conflict that keeps young people from frequenting recreation centers outside of the immediate boundaries of their home.
“The proposed recreation center is in close proximity to another recreation center being done but we know there are beefs between neighborhoods — over 32 people shot in four years [in that area],” White said Tuesday. “Sometimes government doesn’t understand community dynamics. This is a reality for people in Ward 8, and I hope we can counter that by building spaces no matter the capacity.”
A Finalized Budget Chock Full of Last-Minute Amendments
The D.C. Council approved Council member White’s amendment for a new recreation center at Bard by a 9-3-1 vote. D.C. Council member Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1) voted present while Allen, Henderson, and Mendelson voted against the amendment. Later on during the legislative session, the amendment for a recreation center at Fort Greble didn’t hold up, mainly because of questions about whether the U.S. Park Service supported such a project.
Other amendments of note included D.C. Council member Kenyan McDuffie’s allocation of $5 million to the Food Access Fund with money that had originally been intended for the D.C. Wharf. That amendment overwhelmingly passed, with Allen opposing it out of regard for his constituents. Earlier, D.C. Council members Pinto and Nadeau successfully introduced an amendment funding a study about the possibility of a D.C. public library branch near the U Street corridor.
Long after the D.C. Council finalized the budget, D.C. Council member Matt Frumin (D- Ward 3), with some adjustments from Mendelson, successfully passed an amendment requiring D.C. public charter schools receiving matching Washington Teachers’ Union contractual funds to release their pay scale by the 2024-2025 academic year. During discussion around the amendment, Mendelson, an opponent of the amendment as originally introduced by Frumin, alluded to the possibility of a future council hearing that explores even stronger transparency measures.
Frumin, a freshman legislator, said reaching this milestone took some wheeling and dealing, and engagement of a constituency not particularly fond of oversight.
“Nobody likes more requirements, but I’m trying to work with folks in the charter sector to make sure [the amendment] is reasonable,” Frumin told The Informer. “Reasonable looks like transparency like what D.C. Public Schools and some of the charter local education agencies [LEAs] provide in a way that doesn’t slow processes or lower pay.”
‘The Whole Story’ of Pandemic Recovery
This year’s budget process proved to be a test of what the D.C. Council could accomplish with a projected decline in revenue. Bowser’s proposed budget included reduction to SNAP benefits, emergency rental assistance and other programs for which she said the District no longer received COVID-related federal support.
Since March, the D.C. Council went hard at work closing the gaps being mindful, as Mendelson repeatedly stated on Tuesday, that the mayor could refuse to follow through with some of the budget items. That reality became a topic of discussion during Mendelson and Council member Trayon White’s exchange. Mendelson similarly expressed concerns about whether the District, in its precarious economic condition, could produce enough excess revenue to follow through with Lewis George’s amendment for SNAP benefits and excluded workers.
In a statement, Bowser expressed satisfaction with the finalized fiscal year 2024 budget, saying that it “reflects what we know to be true about the next few years: the key to our city’s comeback is in our people. We’re going to bring more people – residents, visitors, and workers – downtown. We are investing in our workforce and city services, especially our public safety teams and teachers. We are staying true to our commitment to fund affordable housing and the programs that support our neighborhoods across all eight wards and keep DC families in DC.
On May 16, during the first reading of the budget, Council member Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5) attempted to revive the excluded worker program decimated by Bowser via the extension of a deeds tax scheduled to expire in September.
That tax would be triggered by the sale of property valued at more than $2 million. Even with the exclusion of downtown properties in Parker’s amendment, many of his colleagues didn’t support it, which compelled him to withdraw the amendment.
Over the past couple of months, the D.C. Council and Bowser have gone toe to toe about the future of downtown with the mayor on a couple of occasions revealing plans to change the makeup of that sector and bring it into the post-COVID era. At times, that vision clashed with efforts to make Metro bus rides free and address the rent burden experienced by working-class Washingtonians.
In the end, Lewis George came up the rear with an amendment that gave excluded workers some relief — mainly by avoiding downtown altogether.
In speaking about the events of May 16, and his decision to not follow through with his amendment, Parker expressed hope that the D.C. Council, as a unit, could not be so laser-focused on downtown in discussions about the city’s economic revitalization — especially when it comes to the well-being of District residents in other parts of the city.
“We had to find another way,” Parker told The Informer. “Downtown is not the whole story and we have to be concerned with the whole story of how to get D.C. back from the pandemic.”
Frumin withdrew his amendment. The chairman’s passed unanimously.
What kind of services will be given to ward 7 residents, is Vincent Gray advocating for us when will we get our much needed services in our food desert. This is the first time I have inquired of this particular issue.
I was one dc government worker that worked everyday during the pandemic and still is working with no concern for me or my family. Was not contained as a matter of fact I felt the job didn’t give a darn about me. We started out with 14$ a day more for working the pandemic the it was taken when my contract says 25%of my income add because we’re in a pandemic. Didn’t even get a thank u and polic, fire department and collection were the only ones working. Your trash did get collected but we were looked over. I understand if you have a problem with the union but the union didn’t pick up the trash the workers did. I worker everyday with a different truck and different people. I think it could have been handled different. People can’t work if they sick. Or dead