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Good morning, More than a dozen budget stories today. For those of your reading on email – it's loooong. Also: 30 years ago today a voice was silenced much too soon.
Best, Karyn-Siobhan Robinson a/k/a DC Government Clips
D.C. Government/D.C. Council media clips: Wednesday, December 8, 2010.
Missed yesterday? http://bit.ly/e6cWqt
Twitter: DCGovClips
Transition / Vincent Gray
Gray's dismantled fence may rise again - Washington Post
D.C. Council
D.C. Council rejects tax hike, backs welfare cuts to close gap - Washington Post
Gray gets council's backing on budget - Examiner
Furloughs, social services cuts dominate Gray's budget fix - Examiner
D.C. Council rejects income tax hikes - Washington Business Journal
D.C. furlough plan delays tougher budget decisions - Washington Post
D.C. Council OKs cuts in budget, furloughs - Washington Times
Gray proposing furloughs for D.C. workers - Examiner
D.C. Council votes down 2 proposed tax hikes - Examiner
D.C. budget debate begins - Washington Business Journal
The 2 a.m Surprise: DC Residents Largely Left in Dark During Budget Deliberations - DC Fiscal Policy Institute Blog: The District's Dime.
Gray budget proposal eliminates DDOT "Unified Fund" - Greater Greater Washington
Furloughs, Not Tax Hikes, Passed At Spirited Budget Hearing - WAMU
Your Taxes Stay the Same, For Now - Loose Lips (Washington City Paper)
Budget Plan Approved by D.C. Council - DCist.com
Protesters disrupt D.C. Council budget hearing - D.C. Wire (Washington Post blog)
And Then There Were Eight - Loose Lips (Washington City Paper)
Whatever happened to family preservation? - Examiner
D.C. Government
Lanier building private workout space at police HQ - Examiner
Is D.C. General Suitable For Children? - City Desk (Washington City Paper blog)
D.C. Lotto could offer online poker, sports betting - Examiner
D.C. slips online, fantasy gambling into bill - Washington Times
Politics / DCPS / Metro / Other
Wal-Mart says it has redesigned stores for D.C. - Washington Post
Region's jobless rate falls to 5.8 percent - Washington Post
D.C.-area confidence index slips - Washington Business Journal
Henderson: Not managing Dunbar in the press - D.C. Schools Insider (Washington Post)
Was Friends of Bedford ready for Dunbar? - D.C. Schools Insider (Washington Post)
Calls for Metro governance reforms add uncertainty for new general manager - Washington Post
Missed (links only)
Cutting the purse strings
Editorial
Washington Post
Tuesday, December 7, 2010; A24
Of Interest (links only)
Rhee starts nonprofit to push education agenda
D.C. Council
Transition / Vincent Gray
Gray's dismantled fence may rise again
By Ann E. Marimow
Washington Post
Washington Post
Wednesday, December 8, 2010; B06
The black aluminum fence that once surrounded Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray's Southeast Washington home may soon rise again when the D.C. Council chairman becomes the city's chief executive in January.
After months of wrangling with the city bureaucracy - including an obscure committee whose decision pushed Gray to tear down a portion of the fence at his Hillcrest home - the mayor-elect most likely will have the last laugh - and at taxpayers' expense.
As it stands, the police department has asked the same panel, the Public Space Committee, to approve the installation of a security fence and guard booth at Gray's Branch Avenue property, according to city officials. And although the cost of the security measures was not immediately available Tuesday, the expense will be covered by the city, Assistant Chief Alfred Durham said.
"You have to have perimeter security to slow someone from gaining access to his property," said Durham, who oversees the executive protection unit. He said the unit is responsible for ensuring that the "best protection is in place for the mayor and his family."
Gray referred questions about the fence to police, declining to comment on what he has described as a frustrating seven-month saga.
"I really don't want to get into this," Gray said with a smile, suggesting an appreciation for the irony of the situation.
For months, Gray went back and forth with city regulators about his $12,600 fence, which emerged as an issue in his mayoral primary contest with Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D), who technically oversees the Public Space Committee.
In the spring, the District Department of Transportation issued a series of $300-a-day citations to Gray because he had not completed an application for the fence, which he installed two years ago without proper permits.
In July, the committee ordered Gray to lower or move a portion of the fence because it found that the council chairman had not provided sufficient justification for exceeding the District's 31/2-foot height limit on fences built in the public right of way. Gray said the decision left him no choice but to take down a section of fencing.
At the time, Gray said he was being singled out and given the runaround by the government bureaucracy. A review of public records showed that since Fenty took office in 2007, Gray was the lone resident fined by DDOT for violating the city's height limit on fences.
City regulators first realized no permit was on file last year, after reports in the Washington Times raised questions about improvement projects at Gray's home. Gray has said he was unaware that the contractor had not filed the necessary paperwork for the fence.
During the campaign, Fenty and his supporters, including Attorney General Peter Nickles, used the fence to suggest that Gray thought he was above the law.
Before the new section of fence can be installed, the police department's application must be reviewed by the Public Space Committee. The panel, designed to protect the character of the city's neighborhoods in part by encouraging unobstructed views in public spaces, is scheduled to consider the application in late January. By that time, Gray will have taken the oath as mayor and be in position to oversee the committee's work.
The original fence was 5 feet 7 inches tall. The new section of fence would be 5 feet 4 inches.
After surveying Gray's property, Durham said police determined that it needed to be completely enclosed by a fence. Durham said the cost would be minimal because the department plans to move the guard booth and equipment from Fenty's Crestwood home to Gray's property.
Gray initially applied for an exception from the city's height limit to replace a shorter chain-link fence primarily for aesthetic reasons. According to DDOT spokesman Karyn LeBlanc, the application filed Nov. 26 says, "the security needs and requirements will change significantly" at Gray's address.
When asked whether he thought the Public Space Committee would sign off on plans to rebuild the fence, Durham said, "For the mayor's safety, I hope so."
D.C. Council
D.C. Council rejects tax hike, backs welfare cuts to close gap
By Tim Craig
Washington Post
Washington Post
Wednesday, December 8, 2010; B06
The D.C. Council approved a city spending plan Tuesday that avoids higher taxes but includes far-reaching efforts to control spending on welfare programs, including a controversial move to start cutting off direct assistance after five years.
On a day that saw public protests at the John A. Wilson Building and sparring among council members over the city's obligation to care for its neediest residents, the council passed a series of amendments to close a $188 million shortfall in the current fiscal year's budget.
The vote is viewed as a warm-up to negotiations in the spring over the fiscal 2012 budget, when council members and Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray (D) will face a projected $440 million shortfall. And although the council refrained from raising taxes Tuesday, most members agree that the debate to come will not be about whether to raise taxes but on whom and by how much to raise them.
"The District of Columbia is in desperate straits.. . . The Grim Reaper is at the door," said Gray, the council chairman. "There is hard work that needs to be done at this stage to make this city fiscally solvent."
The District has fared better than many other cities during the economic downturn, but city leaders say the slow pace of recovery has caught up with the city as sales and income tax proceeds decline.
As the council refined cuts proposed by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) in late November, Tuesday's budget session offered a glimpse into how Gray would govern as mayor. He will be sworn in Jan. 2.
Gray fended off efforts to raise taxes, and he had money restored for job training, healthy school lunches, early-childhood education and cleanup crews that serve commercial areas outside downtown. The council can make additional changes to the budget when it meets in two weeks.
Gray also showed a willingness to tackle two areas that in the past have escaped the budget ax: money for city schools and the federal-local Temporary Assistance for Needy Families welfare program.
Fenty - along with former schools chancellor Michelle A. Rhee - has been fiercely protective of school funding, but Gray persuaded his colleagues to put $31 million of the system's $758 million annual budget in a reserve fund until school officials can prove that it's needed. Gray said his approach is a sign that he wants to "scrub" the school budget for potential savings in the coming years.
Gray, who headed the city's Department of Human Services in the early 1990s, stunned advocates for the poor by pushing through a proposal to gradually cut welfare benefits for residents who have been in the TANF program for more than five years.
Following the lead of council members Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) and Yvette M. Alexander (D-Ward 7), who suggested that the welfare program needed to be reigned in, Fenty proposed in November a 20 percent cut in the monthly benefit of anyone in the program for more than five years. About 40 percent of the 17,000 city families enrolled in the program have been receiving benefits for more than five years. They receive an average of $370 a month.
But Gray slipped an amendment into the budget that would greatly expand the cuts, which could force thousands of residents off the rolls. Under Gray's plan, starting next year, a recipient in the program five years or longer would lose 40 percent of the monthly benefit, and the cut would grow to 60 percent in fiscal 2013.
Within five years, all benefits would be eliminated for anyone enrolled for more than five years. Gray proposed half of the savings be diverted to job-training programs.
Judith Sandalow, executive director of the Children's Law Center, said Gray's efforts will "harm this city for many years to come."
"Clearly Mr. Gray knows what the harm will be to families," Sandalow said. "He has a lifetime of experience of working with low-income families, so I don't understand why he felt a need to do this."
Council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), chairman of the Human Services Committee, called Gray's proposal "a fairly crude approach."
As part of the welfare reform act signed into law by then-President Bill Clinton in 1996, the federal government placed a five-year lifetime limit on participation in the TANF program. But states and the District are allowed to keep recipients on the rolls longer if they use local funds, as the District has done.
In an effort to restore up to $41 million for TANF and other social service programs, Wells teamed with council members Michael A. Brown (I-At Large) and Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) to push separate proposals to raise income taxes.
Wells wanted to impose a quarter-percent tax increase on residents who make between $75,000 and $150,000. Residents with higher incomes would pay more. Graham and Brown pushed an initiative that would have imposed higher taxes on residents who earn $200,000 or more.
The council voted 8 to 5 to reject both plans, but only after a heated debate during which some members accused their colleagues of not caring about the poor.
In addition to TANF cuts, the measures approved by the council curtail cash assistance for disabled residents and for low-income grandparents who raise their grandchildren and subsidies to help poor families pay their rent.
"People say this is about soaking the rich, but let's be clear, the budget before us soaks the poor," said Graham, who at one point challenged his colleagues to prove that they are not members of the "tea party."
Lynita Law, director of Kids Are US Learning Center Too, a day-care center in Southeast, brought a half-dozen preschoolers to the council meeting. She said she wanted council members to see who would be hurt by a decision to cut $3 million in child-care subsidies for low-income residents.
"If this goes through, their parents who work will have to pay market rates for child care, which they can't afford," Law said.
But Gray and a majority of council members said more time was needed to consider potential tax increases.
"We will certainly come back and look at all of these considerations when we look at the [2012] budget," Gray said. "And when you look at the [2012] budget, a lot of the stuff that may have gotten replaced here now, would have been vulnerable again."
Still, the cuts were a bitter pill for social service advocates to swallow, especially as they watched the council later approve tax incentives for developers and other corporate interests.
"The council has been discussing a $41 million tax break to give it to a national corporation, and in the same breath they are talking about cutting social services," said Lacy Mackley, after a security guard removed her from the chamber for disrupting the proceedings. "They are hurting people and children."
As Mackley spoke, one of the the security guards muttered, "Hmm, that's sad."
Gray gets council's backing on budget
The D.C. Council is poised to pass the bulk of Mayor-elect Vince Gray's proposals to fix a $188 million budget gap, in part, by furloughing city workers for four days and slashing funding to social services.
After a robust debate surrounding measures to raise taxes that eventually failed, all but two council members supported Gray's budget. Ward 8 Councilman Marion Barry and Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells voted against moving the budget out of committee, saying the cuts disproportionally fall on the backs of the city's poorest residents.
The measures would also set aside funding for specific programs that could save as much as $40 million. Gray believes Mayor Adrian Fenty did not accurately calculate the costs of those programs and worries that they'll go over budget.
If they do, the funding set aside will be there to offest those programs' costs. If they don't go over budget, the cash will be available to off set an expected $440 million budget gap for the next fiscal year.
Furloughs, social services cuts dominate Gray's budget fix
D.C. Mayor-elect Vincent Gray's council-supported budget fix totals nearly$230 million in spending cuts and revenue increases.-Andrew Harnik/Examiner
Most District workers will be forced to take a four-day furlough and social services will be slashed, but taxpayers won't be asked to shoulder more of a burden in Mayor-elect Vince Gray's council-supported budget fix that totals nearly $230 million in spending cuts and revenue increases.
"We're pretending the Grim Reaper is not at the door," Gray said as he battled Tuesday against two proposals to raise taxes, arguing they would bring the District back to the tax-and-spend 1990s that ended with the city under a federally appointed financial control board. "The Grim Reaper is at the door, and I will not sit here and be part of any exercise that results in a control board coming back to the District of Columbia."
The District's financial state is dire. On late Tuesday, the council passed Gray's budget fix to close a $188 million gap. The plan also allows $40 million to be set aside for a potential savings.
But that's just a slim portion of the $440 million shortfall Gray said he now expects the District to face in fiscal 2012, which starts on Oct. 1, 2011. Although Gray and seven other council members shot down tax increases on Tuesday, he and other members said they'll be open to them in the spring when they work on the 2012 budget.
The four-day furloughs, which will be required for "non-essential personnel" on days that would otherwise be holidays, will save the city $19.3 million, Gray said. Firefighters and police are not be included, but the mayor, council members and their staffs will be.
However, the biggest cuts are to social services, most of which were proposed by Mayor Adrian Fenty and then kept in the budget by Council Chairman Gray. "I think the way the budget is structured ... pits the rich against the poor," Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells said. Among the deepest cuts is a plan to phase out over the next five years a program that helps 8,000 of the city's most needy families. That cut has not yet received the council's approval, but it is expected to be passed later this month. If the cost-saving measure is passed, the program will immediately be slashed by 20 percent.
At-large Councilman Michael A. Brown said he hopes to find a way in the next round of budgeting in the spring to restore funding to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families.
"When we work on the 2012 budget we'll be dealing with a council that's more open, from my standpoint," said Brown, who supported raising taxes this time around. Brown expects the budget gap to reach a half-billion dollars next year. "It's a ridiculous number and we'll see a different vote count come tax increase time for 2012."
SIDEBAR: Items saved from Fenty's ax in Gray's budget fixes
· $4.5 million for a program that puts healthy food options in D.C. schools
· $6.3 million for adult job training
· $1 million for early childhood education
· $375,000 for a deputy mayor for public safety in Gray's administration
D.C. Council rejects income tax hikes
Washington Business Journal - by Michael Neibauer
Date: Tuesday, December 7, 2010, 12:59pm EST - Last Modified: Tuesday, December 7, 2010, 1:23pm EST
It looks like D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray’s tax increase-free plan to close the District's $188 million budget gap is holding strong.
A pair of proposals to hike the income tax failed by 8-5 votes.
“Every citizen should step up,” said Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells, who suggested raising the income tax for everyone at a graduated rate. Wells sought the increase to shore up the human services budget.
A second amendment to increase the income tax only for those residents earning at least $200,000 per year, offered by Councilman Michael Brown, I-At large, also failed.
“If you had a choice between soaking the rich and soaking the poor, which would you select?” asked Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham, who backed the Brown proposal.
But the tax hike opponents, led by Gray and Council Chairman-Elect Kwame Brown, prevailed. Tax hikes, Gray said, are a “Band-Aid, knee-jerk approach to this.”
“We want to get people back to work in the District of Columbia,” Gray said. “That’s where we need to make those investments, to give an opportunity to people to be less dependent upon the District of Columbia and to be able to be dependent on their own wherewithal. And those investments are being made.”
Said Councilwoman Mary Cheh, D-Ward 3: “We need people to move into the city and stay in the city. We need businesses to prosper in the city. With income tax increases, we will be beginning again to drive people out and to keep people out and to make small businesses suffer. That ultimately is self-defeating.”
Tax hike supporters: Brown, Wells, Graham, Harry Thomas, Marion Barry.
Tax hike opponents: Gray, Brown, Cheh, Muriel Bowser, Jack Evans, David Catania, Phil Mendelson, Yvette Alexander.
D.C. furlough plan delays tougher budget decisions
By Mike DeBonis
Washington Post blog
December 7, 2010; 4:55 PM ET
Congratulations, District government employees: You are now part of a hot new trend sweeping the nation: Mandatory unpaid vacation.
That sounds nicer than "furloughs," doesn't it?
Under the D.C. Council's gap-closing package that passed an initial vote Tuesday, District employees will be given four days off, whether they like it or not. The furloughs, expected to save $19.3 million before the fiscal year ends on Oct. 1, have been discussed in recent years as the city has tackled growing budget deficits, but they've been avoided to date, even as other regional jurisdictions have embraced them.
The problem with furloughs is that they're a short-term fix. Because workforce costs naturally grow over time, more and more furloughs are necessary to get the same budgetary boost in each subsequent year. The structurally sound thing to do, from a budgetary perspective, is to actually lay off workers, the dreaded "reduction in force."
Gray said as much shortly after his primary victory, telling me that furloughs "don't solve the long-term problem." But a furlough does solve a short-term political problem, which is avoiding layoffs.
"It sounds better than people losing jobs," said Geo T. Johnson, leader of AFSCME District Council 20, the largest organization of non-uniform city employees. "It looks like something that's going to work. People want to keep their jobs."
Johnson said Tuesday afternoon that he understands that the city budget needs to shrink -- but not at the cost of his members' jobs. "We have to be very conscientious of saving people," he said.
That's fine for now, but with hundreds of millions of dollars still to be cut for the fiscal 2012 budget, the pressure will intensify on Gray to make precision cuts to the city workforce rather than loading a burden on all city workers.
The politics of this are tough for Gray. In what is essentially the first big decision of his mayoralty, he avoided layoffs but also sent the message that he is serious about fiscal austerity by leaving taxes alone and sustaining big human services cuts. But now, the problem becomes worse for him in the spring, when he will be a mayor in the position of either hiking taxes or doing layoffs. Furloughs and the other one-time "gimmicks" he always jeered in Fenty's budgets aren't going to get the job done.
Perhaps Gray is hoping to pull a Martin O'Malley -- that is, emulate the Maryland governor who closed a $1.7 billion in 2007 by calling the legislature into special session and forcing through a budget package full of tax hikes and service cuts that cut deeply into his popularity early in his term, but also gave him time to rebuild his reputation ahead of his re-election. But if that's what Gray has in mind, there was no better time that the present to do it: Gray essentially has final word on the budget as council chairman, and he isn't even mayor yet. Things will only get tougher from here.
D.C. Council OKs cuts in budget, furloughs
Gray: 'Grim reaper at door'
Washington Times
2:43 p.m., Tuesday, December 7, 2010
D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray put his first stamp on the District's shaky financial future by winning preliminary approval Tuesday of budget-balancing legislation that pares spending and pushes off inevitable tax increases until he becomes mayor next year.
The proposed cuts will close an immediate $188 million gap but aren't deep enough to address a pending fiscal 2012 deficit, whose dollar amount is a moving target.
Two weeks ago, city officials announced that the District faces a $375 million deficit next fiscal year. But while debating the budget bill on Tuesday, lawmakers said the dollar figure could be as high as $500 million.
It's "potentially overwhelming," Mr. Gray said.
"Stop pretending the grim reaper isn't at the door," he told his colleagues. "The grim reaper is at the door."
He and other lawmakers said the council must send Congress and residents the right message by cutting spending and reviewing all agency budgets and programs before budget talks begin anew in the spring.
"The worst message we could send to [the incoming] Congress is that we have spent our [reserve] balance fund, maxed out our credit and are now raising taxes," said Ward 2 council member Jack Evans, who predicted the current spending pressures when he voted against the fiscal 2011 budget in May.
The spending problem "is just too big," said Ward 4 council memberMuriel Bowser, who said lawmakers should begin asking some tough questions.
"We have to ask can we afford the number of [job] positions we have," she said. "Can we afford the number of programs we have?"
To ward off the gloomy outlook, lawmakers haggled over several tax-increase proposals before they voted on a stopgap plan crafted by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Mayor-elect Gray.
At the outset of the morning hearing, the belt-tightening measures, which include cuts to welfare benefits and other social-service programs, drew heckles from safety-net advocates, who have been pushing all year for income-tax increases. Protesters calmed down after several were escorted out of council chambers and when it became clear that six of 13 lawmakers, including incoming Chairman Kwame Brown, steadfastly stood with Mr. Gray against raising taxes.
The hearing wasn't all about cutting spending.
Lawmakers agreed to restore $6.3 million to a job-training program, andMr. Gray boosted one of his top priorities by restoring $1 million for early childhood education but compromised another.
He had planned to put $50 million into a rainy-day fund, but the proposal passed Tuesday calls for depositing $40 million in case the already gloomy forecast turns darker. It also calls for four furlough days to be tagged onto government-recognized holidays.
Legislators rejected several income-tax amendments, including a new measure by council member Harry Thomas Jr. of Ward 5, which would create a so-called jock tax, which Los Angeles and a few other major-sports jurisdictions levy against athletes.
Mr. Gray called the proposal a "worthy purpose" that "opens the door" to further discussions.
Another tax measure would raise income taxes on D.C. residents making a minimum of $75,000 a year and as much as $1 million.
Both amendments were shot down.
A final vote on the 2011 budget legislation is set for Dec. 21.
Gray proposing furloughs for D.C. workers
D.C. Mayor-elect Vince Gray is proposing city workers be furloughed for four days to save $19.3 million, but he does not want to raise taxes.
Gray's proposed budget fixes were delivered to council members early Tuesday morning.
He has also proposed that the council restore full funding to a program that puts healthy food in the schools and an adult job training program that were cut by Mayor Adrian Fenty's budget-fix proposal.
Gray has also found $40 million to save against the next round of cuts expected for fiscal year 2012, which starts on Oct. 1.
Many of the deep cuts to social services remain. The council will vote on Gray's proposals Tuesday.
D.C. Council votes down 2 proposed tax hikes
The D.C. Council on Tuesday considered two tax increase proposals, then voted them down 8-5.
Mayor-elect Vince Gray made clear in an emotional speech that he would not support a tax hike in this budget gap-closing, although he left the door open for a tax hike in next year's budget when he's officially mayor.
"We're pretending the Grim Reaper is not at the door," Gray said in appealing for the cuts and furloughs he has proposed. "The Grim Reaper is at the door."
The council has not yet voted on the budget cuts Gray has proposed, among them a 20 percent reduction to a program that gives funding to the city's poorest families. The cut would apply for each of the next five years until the program ends.
D.C. budget debate begins
Washington Business Journal - by Michael Neibauer
Date: Tuesday, December 7, 2010, 11:42am EST - Last Modified: Tuesday, December 7, 2010, 1:29pm EST
Read on for some important items of note from D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray’s gap-closing plan. The council session started around 11 a.m., and protesters were making their voices heard in the council chambers.
“The fiscal challenges we face are daunting, but the decisions we are about to make are tough,” Gray, the city’s mayor-elect, said as the meeting kicked off.
Implements no tax hikes, though the D.C. Hospital Association probably disagrees. The budget proposal still includes a fee increase for every hospital bed in the city, from $1,500 to $2,000.
Update, before I even finished writing this: Ward 5 Councilman Harry Thomas proposes a “jock tax” on non-resident athletes, and the amendment is accepted by Gray without debate. Councilman Michael Brown is now offering an income tax hike, so that the budget is not "balanced on the backs of poor people."
Other notes on Gray's budget plan:
Restores $1.6 million to fund the District’s eight Main Street programs and clean team programs in various commercial corridors.
Requires that, starting in 2015, any surplus dollars in the Ballpark Revenue Fund must be used to pay down the debt on Nationals Park. Businesses pay special taxes to pay for the stadium, but excess funds in the pot have been easy targets in recent years for budget gap closings.
Retains cuts to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and emergency rental help.
Implements four furlough days for non-essential employees, equal to a 1.5 percent pay cut, saving $19.1 million. Gray said Tuesday he is “not a fan” of furloughs, and he will not continue this approach in the next fiscal year.
Restores $5.78 million for the D.C. Healthy Schools initiative and more than $6 million for adult job training.
Lifts, as Mayor Adrian Fenty recommended, all $7 million from the streetscape survival fund, but returns $700,000 to assist businesses in the H Street corridor.
Includes $3.84 million to purchase heavy equipment for snow clearing and solid waste services.
The 2 a.m Surprise: DC Residents Largely Left in Dark During Budget Deliberations
December 7th, 2010 | by Elissa Silverman
DC Fiscal Policy Institute Blog: The District's Dime.
A little after 2 a.m. this morning, DC Council Chairman Vincent Gray released his proposal to close the District’s $188 million budget shortfall. Once again, as happened during the initial passage of the Fiscal Year 2011 budget this spring, the plan came out after most devoted Wilson Building watchers had headed to sleep. Even night owls had only several hours to review the revised package of cuts and restorations before the DC Council will convene to take one decisive vote on the plan later today.
The District budget is a statement of our community priorities in dollars and cents, yet there is a disturbing pattern of keeping the community in the dark about how those funds will be allocated until the final hour or two before the budget vote. Residents and businesses had little chance to voice their opinions about decisions made behind closed doors that have a tremendous impact on what services they will receive and how they will be delivered. It is a breach of good government practices and public trust.
Certainly Chairman Gray and the members of the Council are working under a tight deadline to revise the budget before year’s end, but that should not be an excuse to disregard basic principles of budget transparency. By meeting with Council members individually in his office, Chairman Gray did not give the public a chance to hear his priorities or the priorities of his colleagues. Unlike in the spring, Chairman Gray decided not to hold a televised meeting of the full Council to deliberate the budget. Outside of one marathon budget hearing, in which council members agreed to limit discussion and debate, the public has been shut out of this crucial decision-making process.
DC Fiscal Policy Institute has supported proposals to improve transparency in the budget process. One is to have a 48-hour “waiting period” after the final budget proposal is released to the public before the decisive Council vote. This would allow council members as well as the public a chance to understand the budget proposal and comment upon the package before it is voted upon.
DCFPI also supports efforts to make all council meetings in which a quorum is present open to the public. DC residents should be a partner in the budget process not an afterthought. A bill before the Council today would require open meetings across much of DC government – but the DC Council would be an exception, in that the Council would be allowed to live by its own rules. There is no reason for this exception. The bill should be amended so that the legislative branch of is held to the same standards of openness as the other branches of DC government.
Gray budget proposal eliminates DDOT "Unified Fund"
Greater Greater Washington
One provision slipped into the Budget Support Act in the middle of the night eliminates DDOT's "unified fund," which dedicates transportation revenues for transportation improvements.
Why should you care about this esoteric budget management tool? The Unified Fund gives DDOT the flexibility to move projects much more quickly than in the typical government agency. It can respond to sudden needs, quickly implement new technology, and adapt to overruns or under-budget projects.
DOT has sometimes pushed the envelope on using this power, and sometimes there's not enough transparency. But any reform of the Unified Fund should happen with more public discussion. The proposal wasn't floated publicly until the middle of last night, and it doesn't affect the FY2011 budget gap at all. The Council should hold off on any change until the next budget cycle or a separate bill.
If an intersection really needs to be modified for pedestrian safety, DDOT has the power to move its money around to do that. When DDOT decided to upgrade parking meters to credit cards following the "16 quarters" backlash, they could do that thanks to the Unified Fund. If DDOT is able to expand Capital Bikeshare as they are hoping, the Unified Fund will give them the flexibility to do that. It made it possible to launch CaBi in just 12 months.
Sometimes federal money suddenly becomes available at a moment's notice, and DDOT can move things around to take advantage of it. Last year's snowpocalypse/snowmageddon suddenly cost $16 million in overruns. Other projects end up coming in 20% under budget.
Under the standard budgeting process, each change from one project to another requires the Mayor to submit a reprogramming request that goes to the Council. DDOT would have to submit hundreds of these every year. Most likely it would also mean that every project under budget puts its revenue into the general fund, but new projects would be hard to get through the Council.
DDOT can run a little more like a business than many government agencies. It can be nimble, at least when it's run by an innovative director.
There's also value in keeping the revenues from transportation in transportation. Many fees involve collecting money from suburban commuters and visitors. The money will go to DC priorities one way or the other, but by ensuring that drivers' money goes to improving transportation that benefits those drivers in some way through better transportation systems, it reduces political conflicts.
In the same way it gives DDOT some flexibility, the Unified Fund also gives them the ability to move money around in ways that elected officials can't always see. Sometimes DDOT plays a bit of a shell game, suddenly moving money from one place to another behind their back so that it's harder to control.
The Council is right to examine this fund and look into reforms that might curb abuses or at least increase transparency. However, it's particularly ironic to fix a DDOT transparency problem through a process that has very little transparency of its own.
Nobody publicly floated the idea of changing the Unified Fund until last night. DDOT and the CFO's office say they weren't involved in analyzing the change and suggesting alternatives. We haven't discussed it and I haven't been able to understand the details. And we haven't been able to discuss options other than wholesale elimination.
The change is even obscured in the bill:
SUBTITLE C. DISTRICT DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION OMNIBUS ACT OF 2010
Sec. 621. Short title.
This subtitle may be cited as the "District Department of Transportation Omnibus Act of 2010".
Sec. 622. Section 9(c) of the Department of Transportation Establishment Act of 2002, effective October 20, 2005 (D.C. Law 16-33; D.C. Official Code § 50-921.11) is repealed.
Sec. 621. Short title.
This subtitle may be cited as the "District Department of Transportation Omnibus Act of 2010".
Sec. 622. Section 9(c) of the Department of Transportation Establishment Act of 2002, effective October 20, 2005 (D.C. Law 16-33; D.C. Official Code § 50-921.11) is repealed.
Where the rest of the sections of the Budget Support Act have descriptive titles, like "SUSTAINABLE ENERGY TRUST FUND" or "RECIPROCAL STATE-FEDERAL OFFSET PROGRAM," this section is mysteriously listed just as "OMNIBUS ACT" even though it only does one thing, and makes no mention in the legislation of the Unified Fund or anything about what's in §50-921.11. (It's the Unified Fund.)
I can't know, but it smells like someone was trying to put that in without anyone noticing. I only knew what this was because I had heard the Council budget office was considering changing the Unified Fund, and when this odd-looking provision appeared, immediately looked to see if that's what this referred to.
Update: Justin Constantino in the budget office says that there were other provisions in there, which is why it was called omnibus, and then they deleted those others but neglected to change the title.
It'd be irresponsible for the Council to drastically overhaul the way DDOT manages its budget with a small, opaque provision in a last-minute budget bill. That bill's purpose is to close the gap; this isn't a gap closing measure. Therefore, there's no reason not to give this some light and air. The Council should strike this section today and then consider separate legislation and a real hearing for any change.
Furloughs, Not Tax Hikes, Passed At Spirited Budget Hearing
Patrick Madden
Patrick Madden
WAMU
Listen to story (Windows Media): http://wamu.org/audio/nw/10/12/n3101208-39243.asx
December 08, 2010
The D.C. Council took a major step in closing the city's ballooning budget deficit. The council passed a revised spending plan that includes furloughs, deep cuts to social services, but no income tax increase.
Almost at soon as Council Chairman Vincent Gray slammed his gavel down, protesters rose up from their chairs.
One by one, they disrupted the hearing and demanded the city protect safety net services by raising the income tax.
In the end, their vocal calls were not heeded. The council rejected a pair of proposed income tax increases.
Instead, the budget plan contains four furlough days for city employees and major cuts in spending.
Gray says the deep cuts were painful but necessary.
"The Grim Reaper is at the door, and I will not sit here and be part of any exercise that results in a control board coming back to the District of Columbia," says Gray.
Gray and several other council members signaled they would be more open to an income tax increase in the spring, when Gray is mayor.
Your Taxes Stay the Same, For Now
Loose Lips (Washington City Paper)
The show is over, the council has approved a mid-year course correction on its budget to bridge a $188 million gap. As expected, a few councilmembers tried to include tax increases, and as expected, those efforts failed.
Before we go any further, LL needs to cop to a mistake made a few weeks ago when he predicted that the budget passed today would be unrecognizable from what lameduck Still Mayor Adrian Fenty proposed last month. Save for a few notable changes, the council just passed a budget that looks very much like Fenty's proposal.
As for a pair of tax increase votes, they fell on a 8-5 margin. Those voting for tax increases: CMs Michael A. Brown, Harry Thomas Jr., Jim Graham, Tommy Wells, Marion Barry. Those voting against: everyone else.
Lingering in the shadows of the council's debate were two boogeymen. The first: Fenty, who councilmembers say screwed them over by taking so long to send over a budget. Almost Mayor Vince Gray echoed the complaints of several councilmembers when he lamented the fact that the council had a "truncated, almost unreasonable amount of time" to digest Fenty's budget.
The second boogyman is another control board imposed by Republican congressmen. Some members of the the anti-tax increase faction of council said the city is headed to another control board if it doesn't start making painful cuts. CM Jack Evans said the incoming GOP-controlled House would like "nothing better" than to see the city implode under the weight of its own fiscal ineptitude, allowing Republicans to take over the city finances and say "we told you so."
Referring to another control board, Gray said: “The Grim Reaper is at the door.”
Anyway, the debate on tax increases isn't going anywhere. Look for it to come back with full force this spring, when the council tries to tackle a projected $440 million budget gap.
Budget Plan Approved by D.C. Council
DCist.com
After a spirited debate over whether or not to raise taxes, some confusion over what exactly was being amendedand an apocalyptic warning from Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) of a new control board for the District, the D.C. Council voted 11-2 this afternoon to approve a plan to close a $188 million budget gap in the current fiscal year.
The plan, originally presented by Mayor Adrian Fenty and amended by Council Chair and Mayor-elect Vince Gray, calls for significant cuts to social services and four days of furloughs for city employees -- but keeps tax rates at current levels.
During the council debate, which was initially interrupted by impromptu demonstrations, Councilmembers Harry Thomas (D-Ward 5), Michael A. Brown (I-At Large), Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), and Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) tried to present various proposals calling for tax increases on the city's highest earners.
Wells outlined one of the day's most detailed tax increases, calling for a quarter-of-a-percent hike on residents earning $75,000 or more, a half-a-percent hike for those making more than $150,000 and a full percent jump for those making $1 million or more. The tax increases, he said, would bring in $37.9 million in 2011 and up to $62 million in 2014. "A tax increase will help spread the cost...beyond the city's poor," he argued.
Thomas, Graham and Brown had their own proposal, which included a "jock tax," which would levy taxes on salaries made by artists and athletes performing or playing in D.C. "People say this is about soaking the rich," said Graham of his proposed tax hike. "But this budget soaks the poor."
Both proposals failed on 8-5 votes, with the four proponents only being able to gain the support of Councilmember Marion Barry (D-Ward 8).
Councilmembers Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), David Catania (I-At Large), Evans and Gray all spoke out against the increases, noting that there had not been enough time for opponents of the measure to comment on them. Evans and Catania argued most aggressively in opposition, both citing the Control Board of the mid-1990s as a looming threat if the District doesn't trim its government and slash spending. Evans went as far as to hold up four news articles from 1995 detailing the decline of city finances at the time, a trip down memory lane that Barry was not terribly happy to take.
Despite the tax hikes being voted down, there appeared to be a glimmer of hope that they may factor into discussions over the 2012 budget and its estimated $345 million deficit. Mendelson said he wanted to scrub the government for more savings, but seemed sympathetic to eventually raising taxes. Councilmember Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4), who was otherwise silent during the debate, took the same side, saying, "If we do this now, what will we do in the spring?" And though Gray called tax increases a "band-aid, knee-jerk" approach, he still promised that he would consider them after all available cuts were made.
Wells and Barry were the only members that voted against the final package. The Council will take a final vote on the legislation on December 21.
Protesters disrupt D.C. Council budget hearing
By Tim Craig and Ann Marimow
D.C. Wire (Washington Post blog)
December 7, 2010; 11:50 AM
The D.C. Council's budget hearing Tuesday morning got off to a raucous start as crowds of advocates filled the chamber. Even before Council Chairman Vincent Gray could finish announcing the date and location of the meeting, he was interrupted by protesters, who shouted and jeered.
"Sir, either sit down or you'll be removed," Gray said sternly.
The protesters told the council that there are many high-income people in the city who are willing to pay more in taxes to preserve social services.
Chris Otten, an advisory neighborhood commissioner from Adams Morgan, and Lacy Mackley, were swiftly removed from the chamber when they kept shouting.
As they were led out of the John A. Wilson Building, Mackley and Otten predicted continued outbursts from the crowd of advocates who were jammed in the council meeting room.
"The council has been discussing a $41million tax break to give it to a national corporation and in the same breath they are talking about cutting social services," said Mackley, who was referring discussions about whether the council should give a tax exemption to a company trying to build a luxury hotel in Adams Morgan. "They are hurting people and children."
As Otten and Mackley spoke, one of the the security guards escorting them down the stairs muttered, "Hmm, that's sad."
"Sir, either sit down or you'll be removed," Gray said sternly.
The protesters told the council that there are many high-income people in the city who are willing to pay more in taxes to preserve social services.
Chris Otten, an advisory neighborhood commissioner from Adams Morgan, and Lacy Mackley, were swiftly removed from the chamber when they kept shouting.
As they were led out of the John A. Wilson Building, Mackley and Otten predicted continued outbursts from the crowd of advocates who were jammed in the council meeting room.
"The council has been discussing a $41million tax break to give it to a national corporation and in the same breath they are talking about cutting social services," said Mackley, who was referring discussions about whether the council should give a tax exemption to a company trying to build a luxury hotel in Adams Morgan. "They are hurting people and children."
As Otten and Mackley spoke, one of the the security guards escorting them down the stairs muttered, "Hmm, that's sad."
And Then There Were Eight
Loose Lips (Washington City Paper)
Yesterday was the deadline for interested Democrats who want to be appointed temporarily to Almost Council Chairman Kwame Brown's at-large seat to submit 1,000 signatures to the Democratic State Committee. LLnoted that 11 Dems picked up petition packets. Only eight bothered to submit signatures.
They are, drumroll please:
Sekou Biddle—Ward 4 State Board of Education member
Dorothy Douglas—Ward 7 State Board of Education member; lost council chairman race
Calvin Gurley—Failed candidate for Council chairman
Stanley (Stan) Mayes—DCDSC Ward 1 committee member
Vincent Orange—Former Ward 5 councilmember; lost council chairman race
Kelvin Robinson—Former chief of staff to Anthony Williams; lost Ward 6 primary race
Stephen A. Slaughter—Ward 8 ANC commissioner
Saul Solorzano—Executive director, Central American Resources
Ward 8 Democrats president Jacque Patterson tells LL he's decided to focus on the general election and forgo the appointment process. Pattersonseemed to be one of the stronger candidates who might have had a chance to beat possible front-runner Vincent Orange.
Says Patterson: "It's anybody's race. ... I'll see the person who makes it out of the preseason in the playoffs."
Next up: A Dec. 16 candidate forum.
Posted by Lydia DePillis on Dec. 7, 2010 at 6:12 pm
Housing Complex (Washington City Paper)
More news from Room 500: Despite a last-minute attempt by Councilmember Jim Graham to amend the rent control extension bill to make the measure permanent–which could have engendered a legal challenge–the Council went ahead and approved it as-is, putting the next sunset date at December 31, 2020.
The bill also made it through without any of the fixes that advocates were hoping to tack on to the bill by the end of the year. They can still work them in, but there's no obvious point in the next 10 years to do that.
Housing Complex (Washington City Paper)
Well, not quite. But after a proposed tax abatement for a luxury hotel on our little corner of Adams Morgan passed the Council's finance committee yesterday, you still might be able to pay that much to stay here a few years down the road.
Last week, it looked like the $61 million tax abatement that Councilmember Jim Graham was proposing for an outpost of Ian Schrager's international hotel chain was dead. But the committee amended the proposal to cap the value of the abatement at $46 million, and it passed with an amendment from Councilmember Kwame Brown to require the hiring of District residents and contractors. It even got support from Councilmember Michael Brown, no great friend of the wealthy, who called it a "great economic development project." Which means developerBrian Friedman might actually be able to pull this off, renovating the First Church of Christ, Scientist and demolishing our offices at 2390 Champlain. We'll know more after today; it's the last item on the Council's legislative agenda today.
And now, thanks to Michael Neibauer's document-digging skillz, we know a little more about what the project would look like. According to a report on the team's request for tax increment financing back in July, the new Edition hotel would start out at an average per-night rental rate of $411, which would rise to $511 in four years. It would consider as its main competition the Ritz and the Four Seasons, and have no fewer than five bars, a cafe, and a restaurant.
Which would lend a whole new cast to the mantra, "We don't want to be another Adams Morgan."
Whatever happened to family preservation?
By: Jonetta Rose Barras 12/07/10 8:05 PM
Examiner
More and more the District government has been assuming the traditional roles and responsibilities of parents, said Ward 6 D.C. Councilman Tommy Wells. That comment, made during a recent public hearing on legislation that would require the city to implement federal welfare guidelines that cap assistance at five years, has replayed in my mind during the past couple of weeks.
There was much ballyhoo over the fact that the legislative proposal was introduced by Ward 7's Yvette Alexander and Ward 8's Marion Barry -- both of whom have significant numbers of welfare recipients as constituents. But little attention was given to Wells' stunning insight.
Hi analysis was correct, of course. But it didn't go far enough: Truthfully, the District government, through its various public policies, has undermined and systematically eroded the family structure.
Consider these facts: Three-year-old children are placed for the entire day in the care of the public schools. If they attend after-school programs, they don't get home until late evening. Many receive all their meals -- breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks -- in some nondescript cafeteria. There are other examples of child snatching by the government.
"The general feeling is the parent doesn't know best," Wells told me. "We've decided children are better off with [the government] than with their parents."
A child welfare professional and chairman of the council's Committee on Human Services, Wells knows some people lack good parenting skills; others shouldn't have been parents in the first place. But he said the government takeover of parental responsibilities occurred without any debate.
"We need to have that discussion, especially for families to understand what we expect from them," Wells continued. "We expect them to work and we don't expect them to raise their children."
Why can't they do both -- work and rear their children? My mother did. Lots of people I know do.
Once upon a time, the government respected family. In fact, in this city during the 1990s and through Mayor Anthony A. Williams' first term, there was an emphasis on preserving and strengthening families -- regardless of any parental handicaps. Somewhere along the way that strategy lost currency. The government became surrogate parent.
But studies have shown that children separated from their real parents too early experience deep psychological problems. The separation can be long-term and permanent or it can be episodic. The results appear to be the same.
The government-as-surrogate-parent is an expensive proposition. It accounts for the large and ever-increasing costs of entitlements. The debate Wells has argued should occur in the District could begin as elected officials look to the projected 2012 budget shortfall of nearly $400 million.
The discussion can't simply focus on dollars and cents, however. The new mayor and council might also explore the role government should play in protecting children. They may also consider how to achieve that goal without supplanting the responsibilities of parents and weakening the most critical element of a healthy society: a strong family structure.
D.C. Government
Lanier building private workout space at police HQ
D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier is having a workout space created on a floor of police headquarters that only she and her top staff can access.-ÊMichael Riccio/Examiner file
D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier is building a workout space for yoga, step aerobics and other activities on a secure floor of police headquarters that can only be accessed by Lanier and her top staff.
The renovations are not part of the city's capital budget and are being performed by the police department's maintenance staff, The Washington Examiner has confirmed.
"There is no gym being built," Lanier spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump said in an e-mail late Tuesday in response to Examiner inquiries regarding rumors of the construction of a gym. "We have identified an open space for group fitness activities."
That space is room 5126 at police headquarters in Northwest, sources said. Only Lanier and her staff have access to the guarded fifth floor. Crump said only that the space will be open to "members of the department."
Crump did not immediately respond to requests for comment on how much the renovations for the "open space for group fitness activities" have cost the city. She did say the department will not be purchasing equipment.
The District is in the midst of a deep budget crisis. On Tuesday, the D.C. Council voted to furlough "non-essential" city employees for four days to save $19.3 million. It was part of a larger effort to close a $188 million budget gap. And although the council didn't move forward with proposed tax hikes, it's likely to take up the possibility in April when city officials expect to face a $440 million budget shortfall. The police department has been hit hard by the latest round of budget cuts, including losing $1.6 million for recruiting. If the department doesn't fill positions that will be left vacant by retiring officers, it will shrink.
"Given the fact that we just cut over 400 police positions, the fact that the chief of police is building herself a private gym at taxpayer expense is appalling," said police union Chief Kris Baumann.
The department already has several gyms. Although there isn't one in the headquarters, there are gyms in each of the city's seven district facilities. There's also a larger gym at the police academy.
Baumann said it's particularly frustrating that the funds for the project were not in the capital budget.
"The chief is acting like she's a monarch taking funds from the treasury and destroying part of the castle," he said. "It's government run amuck."
Is D.C. General Suitable For Children?
City Desk (Washington City Paper blog)
That's the question attorney Matthew Fraidin was tasked with finding out. Fraidin, an associate professor at UDC's David A. Clarke School of Law and visiting professor at Georgetown University, had been tapped by Councilmember Tommy Wells to investigate the conditions at D.C. General's emergency family shelter and figure out if the abandoned hospital was a suitable place for children. Fraidin and his students conducted 10 visits to the shelter during this past summer.
Fraidin testified before the D.C. Council about his findings on Nov. 8 [PDF]. While much if not all of the debate over homeless services has concerned Wells' residency-requirement bill, which is slated for a vote today, the shelter's cruddy, crowded conditions have not gone away. Wells told theWashington Post recently that the D.C. General campus has become a dumping ground.
Fraidin says that after making those 10 visits this past summer, he has come to the conclusion that the city should stop putting families in D.C. General. "There are significant concerns that relate to food, health, safety, privacy and social development. A good communal shelter is a bad place for kids. This particular institution has significant problems," he says in an interview with City Desk.
Fraidin revealed his findings during the November hearing. He stated:
For example, a 10-year old boy, who said he likes school and that his favorite subject is math, expressed worry that there is no place for him to do his homework at D.C. General. The same little boy said he can’t have his school friends over, because he lives in the shelter, and can’t play with other children who live in the shelter because they always have to be quiet and are not allowed to visit in each other’s rooms.
The mother of two girls said “all of the kids who live here are afraid, and they are suffering. They have to be quiet all the time, they can’t play in the hallways, but it is not safe to play outside with all the smoking and drinking and prison discharges going on.”
Children and parents pointed out that because there is no outdoor play area, outside play is limited to bare dirt and gravel.
And here's more from Fraidin:
Another parent said “it would be better if they had at least one bathtub on each floor for children that are not old enough to get in the shower. Right now, residents must wash younger children in the bathroom sinks.”
Many residents said they simply cannot eat the food provided at the shelter. One woman said she and her daughters all got food poisoning during the first week they lived there.
Many children are kept in the rooms to avoid residents who are smoking, drinking, cursing, fighting, and using drugs.
Numerous people confirmed that elevators are frequently out of service. One woman told me that she carried her baby – in his stroller— up five flights of stairs. Her friend said “It’s lucky I was there that time, so I could carry her groceries for her.” Another woman said a mother and child had been caught in a broken elevator for 30 or 45 minutes.
The mother of three little children said the shelter has mice, flies, and scabies, even though she is “always cleaning.” Another mother said her “one-year old baby’s hand was caught in a snap trap.”
In one interview, I learned that a family had been separated due to conditions at the shelter. The heat in the shelter was so severe that one woman brought her child to a grandmother’s house, where the child had been living without her mother.
Scabies? Food poisoning? Broken elevators? Fraidin concluded his testimony with a critique of Wells' homeless legislation. The bill would relax restrictions on the types of shelter options for homeless families. In other words, it could produce more D.C. Generals. Fraidin testified:
Budget pressures are hard to resist in these times. The voices of children and parents at D.C. General, however, make it clear that removing the apartment-style requirement will harm children. We know that insufficient attention to children’s needs actually costs money in the long run, while costing the children a chance at a productive and happy life. Many policy questions are susceptible of multiple understandings and a range of reasonable choices. On this one, however, there is no way to argue that more communal care will be good for children. The children and parents whom we met speak with one voice, which says that we should move toward closing D.C. General, rather than housing more and more children in institutions.
In the past two years, two infants died at D.C. General. Last year, it became known for its mismanagement and rough conditions (no air condition on certain floors, peeling paint, mold, and food that caused some kids to have to go to a working hospital). On April 2, Mayor Adrian Fenty announced that the shelter's management would be fired.
D.C. Lotto could offer online poker, sports betting
The D.C. Lottery could soon offer online poker and sports betting.
At-large Councilman Michael A. Brown has included a proposal to make the online gambling happen as part of a bill to help close a $188 million budget gap. It if passes, Brown says the expanded lottery game program will raise about $13 million over the next three years. The bill is scheduled for a final vote later this month.
It will be up to D.C. Lottery to determine exactly which games would be available for wagering.
The games would be tightly regulated, Brown said, to ensure that only people over age 18 play. The plan is designed to help the city tap into residents who already pay for online gambling and those who regularly leave the city to drop coins into nearby slot machines, he said. The proposal comes as D.C. Lottery revenue has declined by 10 percent in the last five years, a total of $7 million in losses annually. Meanwhile, the options for nearby casino gambling have exploded. Maryland now has slot machines a short bus ride from the District. In October, the first full month it was open, the Hollywood Casino in Perryville saw $11.4 million in sales. The new tables at Charles Town's Hollywood Casino in West Virginia raked in $9.75 million in August, its first full month of operations.
The new D.C. lotto games wouldn't "change what [people are] doing, but it does give us the opportunity to offer some options," Brown said. "Because of shortfalls across the country, many jurisdictions are looking to do something similar. We're looking for other sources of revenue."
D.C. slips online, fantasy gambling into bill
'Games of skill' eyed for Lottery
Washington Times
8:46 p.m., Tuesday, December 7, 2010
The D.C. Council on Tuesday took a first step toward legalizing online poker and fantasy sports gambling through the city lottery by tucking the proposal into a massive bill aimed at plugging a $200 million budget gap.
With budget talks roiling at the both the local and national levels, thecouncil, by an 11-2 vote, passed an amendment — with little notice or public input — that would define the D.C. Lottery to include both "games of skill and games of chance."
Introduced by at-large Democrat Michael A. Brown, the amendment would establish a private computer network run by the D.C. Lottery that would allow customers to play poker online as long as they were playing in the District.
Mr. Brown said his proposal would raise more than $13.5 million by the end of 2014.
However, the amendment, approved by the city's legislative general counsel Brian K. Flowers, bypassed a review by D.C. Attorney GeneralPeter Nickles, who said there are several complex federal statutes to be analyzed before he could say whether it passes muster.
"I didn't realize this was coming up," said Mr. Nickles, who is expected to step down by the end of the month to make way for a new attorney general, yet to be named by Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray, who voted to approve the budget amendment.
It also remains to be seen whether members of Congress would prevent such a measure from taking effect.
In 2006, Congress restricted online gambling by prohibiting financial institutions from transmitting funds from U.S. residents to gambling websites. Currently, though there is significant interest in a number of states, there are no legal Internet poker sites based in the U.S.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, is promoting federal legislation that would allow Internet poker games but would restrict initial licenses to casinos and racetrack operators. Mr. Reid's proposal, which also is proceeding through the budget process and has drawn resistance from House Republicans, would supercede any state regulations allowing online poker.
Asked whether he anticipated resistance from Congress, Mr. Brownreplied: "Obviously Congress can do a variety of things with anything we pass, but we can't stop from being innovative just because they legislate what we do."
Mr. Gray did not return e-mail requesting comment.
D.C. Lottery revenues have sagged in recent years because of competition from Maryland and Virginia, which have cross-marketed Powerball and Megamillions games, with the potential for Maryland to take an even bigger bite out of District revenues in years to come with the advent of slot machines.
According to the D.C. office of the chief financial officer, which oversaw a two-year lottery procurement process, revenues from the lottery have declined by more than $36 million since 2006.
The council approval of that procurement is under review by the city's office of the inspector general.
It remains unclear exactly how the D.C. Lottery would implement the new games.
Mr. Brown distinguished the new lottery definition approved by the D.C. Council as a "hybrid" of games of skill and games of chance. Pointing to the need for the District to compete with nearby states, he drew comparisons to Maryland and West Virginia. But the games in those states are not administered by the lottery.
Mr. Brown's budget presentation emphasized that "there are at least 12 states contemplating legislation similar to this amendment." He pointed to California, where an online poker bill died in the state Legislature this year, and New Jersey, which has yet to pass a bill.
He also cited other states, such as New York and Illinois, which are in the process of implementing online poker. But those states had previously approved either casino gambling or video poker.
As additional support for his proposal, Mr. Brown told his colleagues: "Online poker is currently played by D.C. residents and offered by vendors outside the United States."
In addition to the online poker provision, the council approved language that would expand the current lottery's products to include "fantasy sports," like the games offered by ESPN and Yahoo, which allow players to simulate pro football, basketball and hockey using computer-generated statistics. However, those games do not involve payouts.
Reaction to the budget amendment was muted. Some council staff suggested that even as an incremental effort to legalize online gambling, Mr. Brown's proposal might call for more input from the public.
Mr. Nickles said he would be looking at a number of federal statutes in the coming days, including the Federal Wire Act, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act and the Johnson Act, which generally prohibits the manufacture, possession, use, sale or transportation of any gambling device in Indian Country, the District of Columbia and possessions of the U.S. The Johnson Act was cited by a federal appeals court in the District, which in 2006 ruled the federal law prohibited slot machine gambling in the District.
Mr. Flowers did not return calls for comment. But according to Mr. Brown, the council's top legal adviser "has signed off on the proposal."
"This specific area of law is a bit unsettled," stated Mr. Brown in a memo provided to The Washington Times. "However there is nothing in current local or federal law that prohibits this type of gaming and the U.S. Department of Justice has made no effort to curtail procurements in other states."
Politics / DCPS / Metro / Other
Wal-Mart says it has redesigned stores for D.C.
By Jonathan O'Connell
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/07/AR2010120707691.html
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/07/AR2010120707691.html
Wednesday, December 8, 2010; B05
At small meetings in neighborhoods where it plans to open its first D.C. locations, Wal-Mart is unveiling new urban store designs and trying to alleviate concerns about its employment practices to gain support for its entrance into the city.
At a meeting Tuesday night at a police station in the Gateway neighborhood of Northeast, company officials and real estate developers unveiled plans for a shopping center on New York Avenue that would feature a 120,000-square-foot Wal-Mart atop another big-box store. About 50 people were in the audience.
Rather than a sea of surface parking - the typical front lawn for a Wal-Mart - the shopping center would feature an above-ground parking garage.
"This is not your typical superstore," commented D.C. Council member Harry Thomas Jr. (D-Ward 5).
At the same time, across town at the Emory United Methodist Church in Brightwood, officials from Foulger-Pratt, a Rockville developer, presented plans to build a single-story Wal-Mart near the intersection of Georgia and Missouri avenues Northwest. It would have a 362-space underground parking garage featuring "cartalators," or escalators for shopping carts. The brick facade has been designed to evoke the site's history as a storage barn for streetcars.
Wal-Mart officials say D.C. residents want the chain to open stores here. Officials point to a survey the company commissioned in November showing that 73 percent of city residents are "in favor."
But to bolster support and try to persuade skeptics, the company is emphasizing the fresh food, pharmacies and delicatessens the four proposed stores would bring to the neighborhoods - as well as the jobs. The other two sites are on New Jersey Avenue near Mount Vernon Square and at the intersection of East Capitol Street and 58th Street.
"We know that job creation and access to affordable food are significant needs in the city, and we think our first four storescan be part of the solution in this regard," Wal-Mart spokesman Steven Restivo said in an e-mail.
Residents have concerns. James Sydnor, who represents the area around the Georgia Avenue site on the Advisory Neighborhood Commission, said that residents are worried about traffic, wages, hiring and the effect a Wal-Mart would have on existing small businesses.
But he said the retail giant seemed ready to address the issues. "They want to make sure they have small, reasonable meetings and they are willing to set up as many as possible to reach out to as many people as possible," Sydnor said.
At the meeting for the Northeast store, some in the audience applauded after the company's presentation. Initial questions were about parking, management of rodents, security and whether the chain would be able to contribute to local charitable causes. "It feels like anyone who comes to this community has to, No. 1, be held accountable" for the promises they make, said Pat Fisher of Edgewood. But Fisher and others said they still wanted the store.
Thomas met with Wal-Mart officials and local labor leaders Tuesday morning and said he was pleased with the chain's initial commitment to hiring locally and providing job training. When it decided to expand in Chicago, Wal-Mart committed to spending $20 million on local charities, he said, and it is considering similar investments in the District. "Our emphasis has been on career opportunities," Thomas said.
Wal-Mart estimates that D.C. residents spent more than $41 million last year at its store outside the city. It has been looking for sites in the District for years, but Keith Morris, the company's community affairs director for the east region, said but could not find any that would accommodate the store's typical layout. By designing smaller, grocery-oriented stores, the chain may have eased the difficulties.
"It's not designed to be a regional mall to attract people from all over the place," Morris told the crowd in Northeast as he described the New York Avenue store. "It's designed for the community here."
Region's jobless rate falls to 5.8 percent
By V. Dion Haynes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/07/AR2010120706582.html
Wednesday, December 8, 2010; A16
Wednesday, December 8, 2010; A16
The unemployment rate in the Washington region dropped to 5.8 percent in October from 6.3 percent a year ago, according to federal government data released Tuesday. Analysts credited the decrease to a rebound in the retail and restaurant segments sparked by a growing willingness among consumers to spend money.
The region also led the nation in the number of jobs added in a 12-month period, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
It was the second straight month in which the unemployment level dropped significantly in the Washington area. In September, the region's not seasonally adjusted jobless rate fell to 5.9 percent, from 6.2 percent the year before, according to BLS data. From October 2009 to this October, the region experienced a net gain of 43,700 jobs, according to Stephen S. Fuller, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University. In the Dallas and Boston regions, which were tied for second place, a net 23,000 jobs were created, he said.
Fuller attributed the job gains to two factors. The region is seeing an influx of young people taking jobs in the federal government and contracting sector, boosting the economy by spending money in restaurants and retail shops. At the same time, longtime residents are beginning to feel more confident and loosening their grip on their wallets. The demand is prompting restaurants and retail shops to expand their payrolls.
"We've hired more than a dozen people. [Next year] we'll need about 100," said Gus DiMillo, a partner in Passion Food Hospitality, which owns D.C. Coast, TenPenh, Ceiba, Acadiana and PassionFish. The group opened a restaurant in Arlington this year and plans to open two more next year.
"People were downsizing two years ago. Now we're seeing a nice increase in activity," DiMillo said. "Young people have moved into the area, and people who were already here are showing a lot more confidence. I'd call it cautious confidence."
Earlier this year, the region's unemployment rate remained high despite the large number of jobs being created in the federal government and contracting sector - largely because people from outside the region, and not those on the jobless rolls, were filling those positions. But Fuller says that is less the case now.
"Our job mix is very good, and, fortunately, a large part of our job growth is in jobs that unemployed workers were laid off from during the downturn," he said. "We lost a lot of retail jobs. [The new positions] aren't the Christmas holiday jobs - those are part-time - these are full-time regular workers."
The Washington region's 5.8 percent jobless rate is well below the nation's not seasonally adjusted 9 percent level in October. Unemployment in October fell in the majority of the country, in 235 of 372 metropolitan regions.
Last week, the Labor Department said the nation's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose in November to 9.8 percent, from 9.6 percent in October. In October 2009, the U.S. unemployment rate was at 10.2 percent.
Several sectors in the Washington region grew at a faster rate from October to October than they did across the country. Leisure and hospitality grew 3.1 percent compared with 1 percent at the national level, according to the BLS. Government grew 2 percent in this region, compared with a 1.1 percent decrease nationally. And retail grew 2.9 percent in the region, compared with 0.5 percent in the nation.
Conversely, manufacturing rose 0.5 percent nationwide and was down 4.1 percent in the region. Information technology was down 2.1 percent nationally and down 3.8 percent in the region.
Still, Peter Muoio, senior principal of Maximus Advisors, a New York-based economic and real estate research firm, said Washington and suburban Maryland rank particularly high in job creation.
"If you look at the past three months, the District led the nation in the percentage job increase, and suburban Maryland was third among 52 largest markets we look at each month," Muoio said, adding that Virginia was ranked 25. "All three of the Washington area subpieces are very clearly doing very well."
The net 43,700 jobs added in the region during the 12-month period ended in October included: 18,000 in business and professional services; 13,000 in the federal government; 9,000 in health and education; 10,000 in retail; and 8,000 in leisure and hospitality. The region lost a net of about 16,000 jobs in sectors including construction (down 5,000), information technology (down 3,000) and financial services (down 2,000).
The region surrounding El Centro, Calif., had the nation's highest October-to-October unemployment rate, at 29.3 percent. Bismarck, N.D., had the lowest, 2.7 percent.
Also on Tuesday, the Labor Department announced that there was a jump in advertised job openings in the United States in October. The Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey showed an increase of 3.4 million advertised jobs at the end of the month, up about 12 percent from September.
D.C.-area confidence index slips
Washington Business Journal - by Tucker Echols
Date: Tuesday, December 7, 2010, 11:33am EST
The Greater Washington Board of Trade’s latest index of consumer confidence slipped this month for the first time in two years.
The business group said Tuesday that its Consumer Confidence Survey fell from 62 in June to 58 in December as confidence in future conditions in the area declined. The Index of Current Conditions improved by 2 index points since June, going from 43 to 45. However, the Index of Future Expectations fell 9 index points, from 80 to 71.
“Consumers are feeling slightly better about current economic conditions in the region today than they did six months ago, but their optimism for additional gains in the near future has tempered some,” said Board of Trade CEO Jim Dinegar. “While the region’s latest overall index is still higher than it was two years ago, this is the first time we have had a backslide in the index since the Board of Trade began sponsoring the survey series in December 2008.”
Only 13 percent responding to the survey thought jobs were, “plentiful and easy to find,” while 43 percent said jobs were, “scarce and hard to find.” That may be why local holiday shopping could be tempered.
Only 9 percent of the region’s consumers plan on spending more this year on the holidays, while 36 percent plan on spending less. Fifty-four percent plan on spending the same as they did last year on gifts, travel, decorations, parties, and going out to dinner.
Federal employees were much more optimistic than others in the survey, with 59 percent saying current conditions were mostly good. Only 45 percent of non-federal employees said so.
All local consumers share a belief that the grass is greener here. Forty-eight percent of respondents had a positive view of the region’s economy compared with just 18 percent that had a positive view of the national economy. Thirty percent in the greater Washington area had a negative view of the regional economy while 63 percent had a negative view of the national economy.
And the optimists outweigh the pessimists looking toward the future as well. According to the survey, 26 percent of local consumers expect their personal financial situation to improve while only 13 percent expect it to get worse. Fifty-nine percent of respondents expect their personal financial situation to stay the same.
Henderson: Not managing Dunbar in the press
By Bill Turque
D.C. Schools Insider (Washington Post)
December 7, 2010; 9:49 PM ET
Interim Chancellor Kaya Henderson got back to me this evening on the question of what data she had to support her concerns about Dunbar High School. She said there's plenty, but nothing she's willing to make public.
"There's actually a significant amount of data that supports my position that things aren't going well at Dunbar," Henderson said in a 9 p.m. e-mail. "But I'm not interested in managing this situation through the media (no offense to you, of course). I'm going to do what I think is best for students, and going to make some changes that I think will ensure that the kids there have the best chance of learning for the rest of this year. Some people will get it, some won't."
Sounds like FOIA time.
Henderson also said that Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray, a Dunbar alumnus who has apparently gotten an earful from those unhappy with the school, has had nothing to do with her decisions.
"Some will say it's Gray. I'm telling you unequivocally that he hasn't told me any direction to go in on this. I'm just going to do what I think is best. Sorry I don't have anything juicier to tell you."
Was Friends of Bedford ready for Dunbar?
By Bill Turque
D.C. Schools Insider (Washington Post)
December 7, 2010; 5:32 PM ET
As promised, DCPS moved Monday to bolster safety and security at Dunbar High School, which officials say has suffered from a lack of both under Friends of Bedford, the outside operator hired by former Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee.
The package includes additional police presence, more experienced school security guards, and extra administrative types from the school system's central office. A team of social workers met with every English class (to make sure they covered all students) to talk about sexual behavior and respect in the wake of the alleged assault that took place at the school last month.
On Wednesday, Bedford CEO George Leonard, also acting principal, will meet with interim Chancellor Kaya Henderson to discuss "next steps."
Leonard and his colleagues say they've done exactly what they set out to do: begin to change the culture of failure at the school, once the pride of black Washington. My colleague Jay Mathews, a big fan of Bedford, agrees, and says that ousting the group would be a victory for disgruntled parents and ex-staffers.
Henderson clearly doesn't like what she sees at Dunbar, but has also been reluctant to support her criticism with data. School leaders from the Rhee family tree love data, and keep it in a thousand different permutations. I've made two requests and have yet to get a response.
At a minimum, Bedford's experience points up the extreme difficulty of high school turnarounds--especially involving operators who try to transplant their success into new soil in a different city. Rhee selected Leonard's group on the basis of their five years at Bedford Academy, a highly-regarded Brooklyn public school with an unstinting emphasis on college preparation.
But Leonard faced a significantly different situation in D.C. When I visited Dunbar Tuesday, I asked him whether he'd taken on more than he could handle.
"You always know more once you start," he said. "Now that I know the dynamics, I would have approached it differently."
Leonard built Bedford from scratch. Dunbar, once the educational pride of black Washington, had been a failing school for years. Enrollment is nearly twice that of Bedford (750 vs 400) and when he arrived, students were housed in a sprawling '70s-style building with concrete ramps and no walls for classrooms, part of an "open" design in vogue a generation ago.
Bedford was an application school, where students were screened by the city's education department for grades, standardized test scores and attendance. The names of incoming ninth graders were also available to school officials in May or June, allowing the staff time to reach out to new families.
At Dunbar, Friends of Bedford is required to accept anyone with the legal right to attend, including students from Walker Jones and Emery education campuses, some of whom are multiple grade levels behind in reading when they enter Dunbar. Also destabilizing, Leonard said, was the steady stream of late enrollments after the start of school in August, which interfere with attempts to establish some continuity of culture.
"They just pour in here," he said.
"They just pour in here," he said.
At Bedford Academy, Leonard said, incoming ninth graders attend a mandatory month-long "summer bridge" program to prepare them for the demands of high school and to get an early jump on closing academic deficits they may have brought with them from middle school. Rhee allocated the funds for a summer bridge at Dunbar, but said she was unable to make it mandatory for students or teachers. Relatively few attended, and Leonard said in retrospect he would have insisted on a compulsory summer program.
"I would have demanded that we bring in the freshman class," he said.
Calls for Metro governance reforms add uncertainty for new general manager
By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/07/AR2010120705572.html
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/07/AR2010120705572.html
Tuesday, December 7, 2010; 8:30 PM
Candidates for the job of running Metro may have second thoughts amid major initiatives to overhaul the agency and redefine the responsibilities of its general manager and board of directors, transit industry experts say.
"Of the people I know who have some interest, they would rather know, as every prudent person would, who is my boss and what is my title going to be," said former Metro general manager John B. Catoe Jr., who left the agency in April.
"Who would go into a job knowing that would change?" asked Catoe, who runs the Catoe Transit Group consulting firm in Santa Monica, Calif.
Metro officials and others with knowledge about the interview process have declined to identify candidates for the general manager's job.
"You'd want to know . . . if there is going to be a change, what the powers are of the general manager or CEO or whatever title they will have," said William Millar, president of the American Public Transportation Association.
Two recent reports recommended changes in Metro's governance structure, criticizing the 1970s framework as outdated and lacking accountability. The National Transportation Safety Board has blamed the culture for producing a string of fatal accidents and perennial mechanical breakdowns, diminishing confidence in a bus and rail system that records more than a million trips each weekday.
The reports - one released last month by a joint task force of the Greater Washington Board of Trade and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and another issued last week by Metro's Riders' Advisory Council - concluded that Metro's board of directors micromanages the agency and takes a parochial approach to issues, weakening the role of the general manager.
The Board of Trade report called for the creation of a seven-person Metro governance commission and for allowing the executives of Maryland, Virginia and the District to each appoint a member of the board of directors. The 16-member board is appointed by Maryland and Virginia transportation commissions, the D.C. Council and the federal government. The general manager reports to the board.
Millar said that the Washington transit system is considered a "prestige agency," in part because it is in the nation's capital, so candidates "may be willing to tolerate a little more uncertainty coming here than some other place."
Board members Chris Zimmerman and Jim Graham said that possible changes in the structure might give some candidates pause. But the transit agency has attracted some "pretty superb" applicants, Graham said. "If there was a dearth of qualified candidates, we would be very alarmed at this point. Not only would the search have failed, but everything else would have gone to pieces with it," he said.
Metro board Chairman Peter Benjamin said he doubted that the governance debate would cause hesitation among top candidates.
"Being the chief executive officer of Washington Metro is inherently a complex job that requires someone up to a major challenge," Benjamin said. "I don't think minor changes in a major challenge is going to matter. I don't think that will scare people away."
Catoe's departure in April led to the hiring of former New Jersey Transit chief Richard Sarles as Metro's interim general manager on a one-year contract.
Benjamin said the board's four-person search committee could finish its interviews with a pool of about six to eight candidates by the end of this month. The search committee would then bring about four people before the full board for consideration, he said.
"I would love to have it happen by the end of the year," said Benjamin, who added that he would prefer not to remain as board chairman after his term expires next month.
"It's not where I want to be at this point," he said. "This was a very difficult year; this is a volunteer activity."
Metro's board of directors launched an international search across industries for a new permanent Metro executive in the spring.
Millar said that transit agencies across the country have occasionally brought in leaders from outside the industry with mixed results.
"We have seen success and failure with that," he said, adding that if the top person is not a transit expert, "the number two is expected to be really strong in operations."
But a top-notch manager could be better equipped to deal with overarching issues facing Metro, said David Alpert, a member of the Riders' Advisory Council.
"A strong CEO not from the transit industry. . . could deal with the bigger organizational issues, cost efficiency, labor relations, and that sort of thing," he said.
However, some transit experts said they think Metro needs an experienced transit executive to tackle the problems involved with maintaining the subway system.
"They need somebody that knows how to run the damn subway system, that knows signals," said veteran transit professional David Gunn, who served as Metro's general manager from 1991 to 1994. He conducted a wide-ranging assessment of the problems at Metro this year.
Gunn criticized the search committee, saying that it was "running a beauty contest" in looking for a skilled manager outside the industry.
"The place is collapsing, and the problem starts at the board," he said. "No good operating person is going to go to work for that board."
Yesterday:
· Mike DeBonis: http://wapo.st/e9JIPa
· DMV Daily (P.J. Orvetti): http://bit.ly/eqolnX
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