The D.C. Council this evening finished their discussions on closing a $666 million budget hole through October 2010. It now falls to Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray to craft a plan that works, based on what he heard in the conference room over the last three days. LL was not in the room today, for the most part, but based on conversations with numerous members and staff, this is what is likely to appear in Gray's bill. On Friday, when the council takes up the bill, members will of course be free to amend this.

On the revenue side:

• A sales tax hike from 5.75 percent to 6 percent---deemed a surcharge that will expire after three years: $20.8 million
• A gas tax hike from 20 cents a gallon to 23.5 cents a gallon (matching Maryland): $3.5 million
• A 50-cent per-pack hike on cigarette taxes: $9.7 million
• Delaying indexed increases to income tax standard deduction/personal exemption: $5.2 million
• Raising D.C. government worker parking fee from $80 per month to $160 per month: $1.2 million
• Various license and permit hikes: $5.1 million

Read More "What the 2010 D.C. Budget Will Probably Look Like" »

Follow along at @mikedebonis.

Last week, the House of Representatives at long last voted to kill the Barr Amendment---a rider banning D.C.'s implementation of a medical marijuana initiative passed in 1998. It was originally sponsored by Georgia congressman Bob Barr and has been attached to the annual District budget for a decade.

LL covered the possible arrival of medical marijuana here in his column a couple of weeks back (a column that was widely read for other reasons). LL had tried to get in touch with Barr, now a libertarian political activist and presidential candidate, for the story, but didn't connect with him in time.

But now, via a Libertarian Party press release, we have his feelings on the matter.

Read More "Bob Barr Lauds Demise of Barr Amendment" »

At 3 p.m. today, the House rules committee will take up the District of Columbia appropriations bill, and will decide which amendments will later be taken up on the House floor.

Amendments proposed so far include a number of social-policy riders that have been removed in subcommittee and committee actions. They also include attempts to prevent gay marriage in the District.

Here's a rundown:

Read More "Members of Congress Line Up to Tell D.C. How to Spend Its Money" »

So we're about an hour or so away from the final vote on fiscal 2010 budget legislation, which includes all sorts of free money for local nonprofits and do-gooder groups. Thing is, those groups this year had to submit extensive paperwork proving their fiscal and programmatic bona fides. Not all of them have done it.

So if you're associated with...

• Columbia Heights Youth Club
• In-Da-Streets
• C.H.O.I.C.E. Inc.
• Cabel Foundation Inc.
• Ethiopian Community Service and Development Council Support
• North Tivoli Business Association
• Parents Association of Boys and Girls Club No. 10
• Park Road Business Association
• Uniting Our Youth
• Cease Fire Don't Smoke the Brothers
• Friends of Kennedy Recreation Center

...get off your ass and send your stuff in, or no free taxpayer money for you!

Council budget aide Justin Constantino is sitting by the fax machine waiting for your paperwork. Several groups already today have sent in their last-minute submissions.

Last week, on his way out of the door for a long weekend, LL threw up a post about how D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, faced with threats from the D.C. Council to cut $27 million from her fiscal 2010 budget over an enrollment dispute, had sent letters to her principals telling them that their budgets are set to be cut.

Therein, LL asked a couple of questions: Why cut teachers first? Aren't there central-office savings to be reaped?

This week, some answers came to those questions, from DCPS spokesperson Jennifer Calloway. "DCPS has cut the central office budget to the bare minimum," she writes in a statement, "reducing spending over the past 2 years while significantly increasing funding going directly to schools."

"Central office," by the way, is shorthand for all school-system functionaries who aren't directly serving students in schools---not just those who work at DCPS headquarters at 825 North Capitol Street. And if the central office has indeed been cut to the bone, Rhee will have accomplished quite something.

Read More "DCPS: Central Office Budget Cut ‘to the Bare Minimum’" »

Yesterday, after the D.C. Council voted to hold back on some $27 million in D.C. Public Schools funding, Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee wasted no time writing a nastygram [PDF] to Vincent C. Gray and his colleagues.

The letter laid out all the money that would have to be pulled from schools---itemized and broken down by ward. (Smart move: Hey, Harry Thomas, want to explain to your constituents why you voted to cut $3.9 million from Ward 5 schools?)

This wasn't the first letter Rhee had sent Gray and the council.

Last week, she had sent another missive [PDF], asking the council to reconsider its moves to cut the budget of the Deputy Mayor of Education's office and to remove the State Board of Education from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education. Rhee says the council moves, which were ratified yesterday, "begin to erode the structure established by and the progress which has ensued under" school reform legislation passed in 2007.

Much of the letter concerns the decision to take the Interagency Collaboration and Service Integration Commission (aka ICSIC---"ick-sick") out of DME Victor Reinoso's shop and put it in the DCPS Office of Youth Engagement. That office, Rhee writes, "is building twilight programs, student attendance and truancy initiatives, and the Youth Engagement Academy," and as such "cannot take on the additional responsibilities of ICSIC without diverting its focus from these other important initiatives." Better, she says, to leave it with Reinoso, where it "has the force of the Mayor's office to coordinate across agencies and the dedicated focus and resources which would otherwise be lost in the day-to-day functions of another agency."

Rhee also takes issue with the council's move to pump up the SBOE's independence, saying it is "likely to lessen the policy focus of the Board and create the temptation to micromanage" and claiming that moving the school ombudsman's office under their aegis "is likely to politicize" that operation.

In closing, she writes, "we need to continue our progress within the structure and the time line promulgated by the Act. It is too early to turn back."

Full letter after the jump.

Read More "Michelle Rhee Annoyed By Council’s School Governance Moves" »

LL has spent the last week poring over the budget reports submitted by the 12 D.C. Council standing committees. With hundreds of pages of text, there's bound to be a few slip-ups. Here's two of LL's favorites:

Holy Pork: From Muriel Bowser's public services and consumer affairs committee: "$500,000...is transferred to the Department of Parks and Recreation...for the sole and exclusive use of beatification of passive parks within the boundaries of Ward 4" [emphasis added]. Now Bowser's Catholic and all, but does she have enough pull with the pope to sanctify her parklands?

Dept. of Me: From Harry Thomas Jr.'s libraries, parks, and recreation committee: "Redirect $1M from General Improvement (RG001) to Harry Thomas, Jr. Recreation Center Project, created in the 2009 Capital Budget." The height of narcissistic legislating? Probably not: There is a Harry Thomas Sr. rec center in Eckington, named after the current councilmember's father and predecessor as Ward 5 councilmember.

Wednesday evening, LL reported that Ward 3 Councilmember Mary M. Cheh was proposing to trim a nice chunk out of the mayoral Office of Policy and Legislative Affairs---a proposal since ratified by the D.C. Council's government operations committee.

And if there's anything that's become perfectly clear about Mayor Adrian M. Fenty in recent months, it's that he's not above petty political payback.

So how else to explain this: Yesterday, Ward 3 Councilmember Mary M. Cheh held a "Ward 3 Education Forum" at Alice Deal Middle School in order to keep her constituents apprised of various ed developments. She invited representatives from the D.C. Public Schools, the Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization, the school ombudsman's office, and the State Board of Education to attend in a purely informational role.

About 50 residents showed to the meeting, but three invited guests did not: Tony Robinson and Will Mangum of OPEFM and Jesus Aguirre of DCPS. Cheh explained to the crowd that she learned shortly before the meeting that the mayor had told the three not to attend.

Cheh declined to comment on the allegations; mayoral spokesperson Mafara Hobson said only that any suggestion that the employees were ordered not to attend are "false." She has yet to furnish any further explanation.

Screw the tanking economy: Der Schweinmeister is back.

On Tuesday, Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham pre-emptively told reporters that he'll be directing a grant or two in his pending committee report. "We do have earmarks," he said, "but we have kept them to an absolute minimum."

Absolute minimum, eh? Quite a boast for a guy whose committee report last year LL called "a true masterpiece of the porkly arts."

LL spent this evening poring through his report, released today. Graham's barely lost a step. By LL's count, he's sent more than $6 million to favored community groups and to projects almost entirely located within his home ward. That's roughly the same amount he sent to Ward 1 groups and projects last year.

Where'd the money come from? Most of it came from three spots: $6.8 million came from the new "Sweeper Cam" program, where street sweepers are now equipped with automated cameras to record illegally parked cars. That revenue, from an estimated 237,500 $40 tickets, hadn't been figured into the 2010 budget. Another $12.6 million comes from "enhanced neighborhood parking enforcement citations"---in other words, more parking enforcement officers writing more tickets on nights and weekends. Graham also found $12.7 million in Metro funds "double counted" in the budget. So he spent that, too.

Now most of that went to fund various agency budget lines and to restore programs in other agencies. But a bunch of it didn't. Here's the full list:

Read More "Graham Still Looking Out for (Ward) No. 1" »

First Vincent Gray went after Victor Reinoso. Now Mary Cheh's going after his boss.

The Ward 3 councilmember, as chair of the council's government operations committee, is proposing to reduce the budget of the Executive Office of the Mayor by $287,000 and three employees.

All of that comes from the Office of Policy and Legislative Affairs, what is essentially the mayor's lobbying shop. In past months, especially since the departure of Deputy Chief of Staff and OPLA Director JoAnne Ginsberg, the council's been grumbling over a lack of communication and information sharing---a dispute which culminated in a contentious March 13 oversight hearing where Cheh clashed with new OPLA head Bridget Davis.

This is what Cheh's committee report had to say:

When the Fenty administration took office in 2007, OPLA worked to develop a supportive relationship with the Council. Over the past year, this relationship has deteriorated. While OPLA still proffers a desire to cooperate, members of the Council have witnessed a reduction in the willingness to share information and operate in a transparent manner. Efforts to engage the executive branch have been hampered, executive witnesses invited to Council hearings have been purposefully withheld, and agencies’ responsiveness to Council oversight has slowed significantly. The uncooperative behavior of the executive branch, and OPLA in particular, has sometimes bordered on legislative interference.

The Committee notes that while 11 full-time employees may enable increased communication, without the desire to work collaboratively, such an outcome is unlikely. In the past, the staff at OPLA has been smaller. Although the Committee respects the Mayor’s authority to develop and implement his own policy agenda, the function of OPLA has been revealed as primarily a legislative-focused entity, working to coordinate activities between the executive and legislative branches. Despite this focus, the Committee notes repeated efforts to limit the Council’s ability to conduct oversight. As a result, a budget of $1,051,000 is excessive.

The report also said, "The Committee considered a more substantial reduction to the Office, but opted to instead monitor OPLA’s actions over the next year and reconsider the matter during the FY 11 budget cycle."

Here's what Attorney General Peter Nickles has to say about the proposed cuts: "My view is that it is objectionable. We did not touch the council's budget and it's been a longstanding practice that the council doesn't touch the mayor's budget....It's really uncalled for, and, to me, it seems spiteful, without any foundation in logic and substance."

LL asked Nickles if he was considering any recourse: "There are matters that the executive can consider when tradition is broken. There are various options. I would hope that the council would reconsider this. You don't see the Congress cutting the White House budget and the White House cutting the Council Congress's budget. All you do is generate antagonism and confrontation there's no need for."

Nickles went on to address the council's preliminary vote to dock Reinoso's funding and other changes: "Looks to me like we're going backward again....I thought the council said, we're going to give this five years. What's the State Board of Education getting more money for? They don't do anything---my understanding is that the council isn't giving them more authority....It sends the wrong signals. All around the country...the view is to give the mayor the authority and hang with the mayor, hang with the chancellor, and give the new structure a chance to work."

As noted earlier this afternoon by Nikita Stewart at D.C. Wire, the D.C. Council's economic development committee spent their afternoon carving up a pool of money known as the Neighborhood Investment Fund into little pieces to disburse to various favored groups.

To be fair, councilmember did not start the trend. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's budget proposal, LL was first to report, divvied up the NIF money into places seemingly not in keeping with the fund's original purpose of stimulating development in 12 target areas. Rather, Fenty wanted to money to go for capital improvements at a pair of Ward 2 nonprofits and a passel of arts grants---not to mention a hefty subsidy for the DCUSA parking garage.

Brown proposed dropping most of those directives and putting $10 million of the fund toward competitively bid grants in keeping with the NIF's original intent. But his colleagues had other ideas: Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans started by proposing to restore much of the mayor's proposed earmarks (most of which benefited Ward 2, unsurprisingly). So did Ward 4's Muriel Bowser. Then Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry got in on the action. And Ward 7's Yvette Alexander. Brown was the lone vote against each addition.

Barry tells LL: "I believe in earmarks...as long as there's accountability and transparency."

LL has gotten his hands on the list. He's still plowing his way through the earmarks contained in Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham's committee budget report. Will update with that soon. But this should be enough to get you started.

Read More "D.C. Council Porkfest 2010" »

This morning, D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray convened a press conference with 11 of his colleagues to go over their proposed markup changes to the FY2010 District budget. It was a standing-room-only affair, at least in the beginning, but as councilmember after councilmember rose to detail his or her recommendations, it got real tedious real fast. Be glad LL was there so you didn't have to be. Herewith, the highlights:

---Marion Barry showed up by 9:45 a.m.---by far the earliest LL has ever seen him in the John A. Wilson Building. He explained he had come straight from the airport, after flying in from Oakland, Calif., where he was attending a conference of the National Association of Black Public Administrators. Harry Thomas Jr., the only councilmember not to attend the briefing, remained there. In a strong voice, Barry explained how he "almost jumped out of...my chair" when he saw what the Fenty budget proposal did to charter facilities funding. "I called the chairman, said, 'Good afternoon; you got your $10 [million]."

---Streetlight Maintenance Fee looks to be gone. Jim Graham, Jack Evans, and Gray all committed to finding the $12 million to make the proposed electric-bill add-on go away.

---As previously mentioned, Emancipation Day will remain a public holiday.

---No Class 3 property-tax relief---for now. The controversial hike on vacant-property tax rates was widely expected to be expunged though the budget process, but Evans says the council will take up the matter after the budget process. Same goes for reform measures at the Board of Real Property Assessment Appeals---everyone agrees it's necessary, but not necessary to deal with in the budget.

Read More "Streetlight Fee No More, and Other Budget Potpourri" »

A slightly less groggy LL is taking yet another look at the FY2010 budget proposed by the D.C. Council. Another sizable new item he initially missed: Looks like Emancipation Day is back in full.

Originally proposed under Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's budget plan to move from a full public holiday to an optional "private" holiday, the change was intended to save about $1.2 million on overtime costs for vital employees required to work on the day off. That money has been restored, taken from the operating budgets of nine agencies under the council plan, which will be subject to a full council vote.

In other good news for District employees, the council is proposing restoring $8.3 million to a city fund intended to finance pay raises for union workers. The mayor had proposed zeroing out that fund over the course of the four-year financial plan. Now $8.3 million ain't a lot, but it's enough that city employees can at least expect their COLAs.

Looks like Vince-'n'-Victor show has turned into a bit more than a show. More than that, it looks like the baseball ticket feud between the council and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty has given way to conflict much more substantive.

According to a budget report released tonight, Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray is proposing to cut the office of Deputy Mayor for Education Victor Reinoso by some 80 percent. Where the mayor had proposed a $4.04 million budget for the office, Gray is proposing outlaying only $778,000 for the office. He proposes taking the office from 21 employees down to seven.

In other big news, all the lobbying by charter schools and their advocates has paid off: Gray's looking to restore $16.7 million to the charter facilities budget (though not the full $24 million). Where did the council find much of the money to do so? From Fenty's beloved summer jobs program.

The proposed reduction in the deputy mayor's budget corresponds to a movement of various functions out of Reinoso's shop and into others. Some agency oversight functions are being transferred to the State Superintendent of Education; the Interagency Collaboration and Service Integration Commission and its $2.3 million budget is being sent to the DCPS Office of Youth Engagement; and the schools ombudsman will fall under the State Board of Education's purview.

As for charter facilities funding, under the committee plan, the method of funding will remain the same for another year, delaying the mayoral effort to move to a "cost-based" system. However, the formula will decrease from $3,100 per student to $2,800 per student.

If you think mayor-council relations were bad before, consider this a declaration of all-out war. Gray is taking direct aim at what Fenty considers the cornerstone of his mayoral legacy: public education reform. Reinoso was tasked with being Fenty's big-picture, behind-the-scenes guy responsible for steering the whole educational ship in the District, from early education to charter schools to facilities management to DCPS to UDC. But Gray never saw much strategic direction out of Reinoso's office, and it didn't help that Reinoso repeatedly clashed with Gray when he testified before him---if he testified at all.

That's borne out by the report, which reads, "[S]ince the creation of the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education, no statewide education strategy has been created or established, even though approximately $2 billion is invested annually in public education in the District of Columbia, not including the District’s educational facilities capital program....The Committee is concerned that there is a continuing environment of uncoordinated efforts, initiatives, and budgets between early childhood education, the traditional public schools and charter schools, and the University of the District of Columbia, as well as the strategic planning of educational facilities for all public education sectors."

The slap being delivered by raiding the Summer Youth Employment Program for $10 million is even more vicious for who is delivering it: Marion Barry, the father of the summer jobs program and current chair of the committee on housing and workforce development. It's rare for a committee chair to willingly give up a huge chunk of the budget under his oversight, but make no mistake that Barry considers it worth it to send a message to Fenty.

The plan is still subject to a vote by the full council---this is the committee of the whole, after all---but expect Vince to have the votes on this one.

UPDATE, 12:30 A.M.: After having a closer look at the COW report, LL realizes he may have buried the lede. Gray is proposing to essentially triple the proposed budget of the State Board of Education and to make it "a separate entity within the District of Columbia Government, with sufficient resources and staff to fulfill its important mission." That responds to concerns that, under the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, the board did not have sufficient institutional distance from executive functions of government. But before you start thinking this is the second coming of Peggy Cooper Cafritz, read this: "No additional roles, responsibilities or authority over educational decisionmaking will be assumed by the Board as a result of this transition."

Another item of note: Gray has found $5.4 million in his proposal to fully fund the "Pre-K for All" legislation passed by the council last year. The report had strong words for the gap in the mayor's budget plan: "Disappointed is a mild description of the Council’s response to the failure of OSSE and this Administration to honor its commitment to the expansion and enhancement of pre-kindergarten (pre-k) services to District residents."