The District of Columbia’s budget is a plan for how the District government will spend money in the coming year. It is the clearest statement of the District government’s priorities, expressing the vision and policies of the Mayor and Council.

The budget also identifies the sources of revenue used to support this spending, both the amounts raised by the District itself and the amounts received from the federal government. Local revenue sources include income, excise, and property taxes, licensure fees, parking tickets, and usage fees. Federal dollars come to the city in a number of forms, including block grants (such as the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program) and federal matching funds to supplement DC spending (such as Medicaid).

The District has two types of budgets: an operating budget and a capital budget. The operating budget lists spending to deliver services in the upcoming fiscal year, such as teacher salaries. The capital budget lists spending to build infrastructure (such as new schools) or purchase major equipment. This Toolkit covers only local funds in the operating budget.

  Download the Fair Budget Coalition’s Citizen’s Guide to the DC Budget to learn more.

 

The DC Budget Process

Development of the District’s budget begins in late summer or early fall, when the Office of Budget and Planning (OBP) provides agencies with guidelines for submitting their budgets for the next fiscal year. Agencies develop their budgets throughout the fall, often communicating with individuals and organizations in the community as they do so. Agencies ask for funds that are sufficient to maintain their current level of services and, in many cases, to provide new or expanded services as well.

OBP then "scrubs" the agencies’ requests, eliminating redundancies and verifying costs. In February, OBP releases the baseline budget, which reflects the agencies’ requests and OBP’s scrub.

While the baseline budget is being developed, the District Council is considering its priorities for the budget. The Council holds oversight hearings for each agency, usually in February (before the mayor’s budget request is released). These hearings review the agency’s performance over the past fiscal year and help the Council identify budget priorities. The public is invited to testify at these hearings and provide input for Council priorities for the new budget.

From February to March, the mayor prepares the budget request based on the baseline budget received from OBP. The mayor makes adjustments to agencies’ budgets to reflect management changes. If the baseline budget calls for more total spending than the District projects it will receive in revenue, the mayor has to make cuts. If the baseline budget calls for less total spending than the District projects it will receive in revenue, the mayor has the chance to invest in more goods and services for residents or to cut taxes. The mayor’s office communicates with residents as it prepares the budget request.

After the mayor releases the budget request, the Council holds a series of hearings (from March until May) to "mark up" the mayor’s budget. The first set of hearings review the budget request and allow agencies to present their funding requests to the Council; the public is also invited to testify. During the second set of hearings, the Council modifies the mayor’s budget request. Each Council committee marks up the budgets of the agencies under its purview. If there are no surplus funds to claim, the committee can provide extra funding to particular agencies only by taking funds away from other agencies under its control. The public may only observe these hearings.

Following the mark-ups, the Council votes on the budget in May. After the mayor and the Council agree on it, the final budget is submitted to Congress for approval. The District’s fiscal year begins October 1. After the fiscal year begins, a revised budget is released that reflects any changes in the spending plan since the final budget was approved.

  Download DC Action for Children’s District Budget Process — Step by Step for more detail.

 

Guide to Budget Advocacy

• Get a budget. A limited number of paper copies of the budget are available.  While the baseline budget generally is available to the public only in hard-copy form, the mayor’s budget request and the final budget are available electronically one or two weeks after their release.  Paper copies, when available, must be obtained from the District’s Office of Budget and Planning.

    Visit http://cfo.dc.gov to download copies.
    Call 202-727-6234 for a paper copy.

• Attend a hearing. Public oversight hearings of DC government agencies occur from February to March. Public hearings on the mayor’s budget request take place in April. The Council’s mark-up of the budget takes place the last week in April. The Council considers all of the mark-ups in a final hearing in May.

  Check the Council calendar before attending any hearing, as the schedule may change. All hearings are open to the public, though only some offer opportunities for the public to provide testimony.

    Visit http://www.dccouncil.washington.dc.us for a full schedule of hearings.

• Testify at a hearing. The public is invited to testify at public oversight hearings and at public hearings on the mayor’s budget request. In order to testify at a hearing, participants must sign up in advance. It is preferred that you provide copies of your testimony for each member of the Committee holding the hearing; if you cannot make your own copies, Committee staff will make copies for you if you provide your statement a day ahead of time.

  Contact committee staff to sign up for hearings. The full schedule of hearings contains the necessary contact information.

    For tips on preparing and delivering testimony, download DC Action for Children’s Tips for Preparing and Delivering Testimony.

• Contact elected officials.

    Download DC Action for Children’s Guide to Accessing Elected and Appointed Officials in the District of Columbia.