As we learned over the weekend, the much-talked about congressional “Supercommittee” will likely end with less than super results, and its failure could trigger staggering cuts that will be felt right down to state and local budgets including DC’s.
Meanwhile, there is also a local effort shave DC’s budget dramatically that — led by a supercommittee of one rather than 12 — that has been much less talked about even thought it could have an equally big impact.
What’s that?
The District of Columbia “One City Performance Review“ was announced by Mayor Vincent Gray with much fanfare earlier this summer as a top-to-bottom review of DC government finances. The effort is being spearheaded by former District Chief Technology Officer Suzanne Peck, who said she would do the work pro-bono and has done similar studies for the governors of Pennsylvania and Delaware.
According to sources, Peck has asked each city agency to identify how they can reduce their budget, reportedly by 10 percent, as well as identify untapped sources of revenue. The suggested cuts and revenue will all be combined into a binder for Mayor Gray to review. The submissions are expected to be sent to Peck soon.
What impact will this have on the Fiscal Year 2013 budget? It is unclear right now. Given that DC agency budgets have been scrubbed for inefficiencies and cut over multiple rounds during the recession, it is not clear how they will fins substantial additional savings without significantly affecting services. A 10 percent cut would mean more than $40 million to the Metropolitan Police Department and $65 million to the Department of Health Care Finance.
In fact, there are many other unanswered questions about the “One City Performance Review.” The effort has received little attention, save a few media reports that revealed city employees involved in the project were asked to sign confidentiality agreements.
We hope that the final product of the “One City Performance Review” will be available to the public for review and comment. A one-person effort to cut from every corner of the DC budget is something the public deserves to be brought into, particularly with a mayor who expresses such strong support for transparency. We hope to hear more from Peck and Mayor Gray about the effort and how its findings will impact the FY 2013 budget.
