Mayor’s budget seeks to grow DC, but includes $469M in cuts
In her 12th and final budget, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s $21.2 billion budget proposal seeks to grow the District’s economy, despite rising costs and flat revenue forecasts.
Bowser presented her proposal to the D.C. Council in a presentation at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library on Friday morning.
“We all have be clear-headed about where we are, and what it will take to keep growing,” Bowser said. “We also have to dispel this notion that the District is broke … You can’t have $2 billion in the bank and be broke.”
D.C.’s cash reserves have increased 35% to 66 days, since FY 2015.
Bowser said her budget prioritizes public education, public safety, preserving core services, protecting health care for D.C. residents and growing the economy.
Bowser, City Administrator Kevin Donahue and Budget Director Jenny Reed described some of the major reductions required to allow the District to continue to grow.
“The first difficult choice that we had to make was remove funding for future pay increases,” Reed said.
The mayor’s budget would remove $127 million in funding set-asides for future collective bargaining agreements and non-union pay increases.
The District’s universal paid leave program will be scaled back by $95 million. While employees will still be able to file prenatal and parental leave claims for the birth of a child, the city won’t accept new medical leave claims during the coming year.
One of the largest investments in the mayor’s budget is $350 million over six years to keep fire trucks and ambulances modern and functional.
Approximately $320 million of transportation improvements are planned around the RFK Campus, “to improve access for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers,” Reed said.
“We want to make it easier and less expensive to do business in D.C.,” Donahue said. “So the budget will include lowering certificate of occupancy fees.”
One suggestion from the mayor that has failed in previous fiscal years, Donahue said, is the push “to legislatively require all District agencies to have employees in office, four days a week. This helps with those first-floor retail (businesses) that really rely on people coming into the city.”
“And, it also reflects that we have very expensive leases,” Donahue said.
With the Trump administration’s mass firings of federal employees, combined with attempts to offload federal buildings,
“If we want to continue to grow D.C., we really need to redevelop these federal properties,” Reed said.
She noted there are already plans to create mixed-use neighborhoods in Southwest D.C., with the goal of connecting the District’s cultural and entertainment core from Gallery Place and Chinatown to the Wharf.
“What this budget includes is a 20-year tax abatement for federal properties to encourage redevelopment with the proceeds going into a Downtown revitalization fund,” Reed said.
Find the full FY27 budget presentation at budget.dc.gov.