Efforts to close DC’s $175 million budget gap are now underway. Mayor Fenty released an executive order that freezes hiring and salary increases and puts into place a 10 percent cut to a portion of each agency’s budget. To be clear, the executive order isn’t the real or final plan to close the gap; it is a placeholder to keep spending in check while the Mayor works on a more detailed plan to be delivered to the Council mid- to late-October. But it is a sign that more budget cuts are to come.
As both the Mayor and Council start the process of deciding how they will officially close the $175 million budget gap, we hope they will keep a few things in mind:
The recession has had a devastating impact on many DC families. In the last two years, unemployment rose to record levels and tens of thousands of DC residents lost their jobs and their ability to provide for themselves and their families.
The recession also led to an alarming rise in poverty among some of DC’s most vulnerable groups. In just two years, child poverty rose by one-third and the number of people living below half of the poverty line ‘ deep poverty ‘ grew by 14,000 residents. More than 1 in 10 DC residents now live on the equivalent of less than $11,000 a year for a family of four.
DC’s economy is now adding jobs, a sign that recovery may be underway, but most of the new jobs are not going to DC residents. Unless we help our out-of-work neighbors get the training and skills they need to get back to work, we will leave the recession more economically divided than we were to begin with.
A balanced approach can help maintain investments in our community. As presumptive Mayor Gray said earlier this week, “We have not only cut to the bone, we are down to the bone marrow.” He’s right. As we move forward, relying on a cuts only approach to our budget problems would make things worse for a lot of families that are already struggling to stay afloat, and lengthen the effects of the recession.
But by addressing the budget shortfall with both revenue increases and spending cuts the District can preserve investments in areas like education, job training, and health care, just to name a few. We are all better off when everyone is working, consuming and producing. Our neighbors are better off, our businesses are better off and our communities are better off.
Maintaining investments in our community can help ensure that when the economy recovers, everyone will be better positioned to recover along with it.
