I Can't Pay My Taxes: Being on the D.C. Council comes with a few perks—the chance to weigh in on important matters of public policy, the ability to use donations from powerful business interests to buy things to make your constituents like you, free Lady Gaga tickets. And oh, yes, also an average salary of [...]

No really. And how does this even happen? The Post's Tim Craig tried to find out but was told the circumstances are confidential.
In a warning to those who owe the District, authorities seized a Chevy Chase man’s rights to his house because he allegedly owes more than $17 million in back city taxes.
The action, completed [...]

Let's All Go To The Lobby And Pay Some Taxes: Seeing movies in the theaters these days is an expensive proposition. There's the tickets themselves, which cost more than $10. There's the Metro fare to the theater. There's the $7 monthly payment to Netflix that meant you could have just held out a few months [...]

Everything In Its Right Place: In retrospect, the idea that one of the biggest rock bands in the world would want to do a literature drop at a random street corner in Brightwood Park should have seemed off to begin with. But that didn't stop people from getting excited about the prospect that Radiohead's The [...]

Gerrymandering for the People: Census figures out yesterday meant two things—one, the decennial shock that the city's demographics changed, and two, we now know what wards need to grow or shrink as the city redistricts its political boundaries. (Alas, we also know that despite gaining nearly 30,000 residents, we will continue to have a grand [...]

This is sad unless you like city leaders failing to implement a tax reform bill they already passed. If the D.C. Council doesn't act, the DC Fiscal Policy Institute believes the city could face another $20 million in budget cuts. Enjoy the grainy footage, sad music, and scary stats:

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT—'Robert Wone's 'Meticulous' Habits Contrary to Cluttered Crime Scene," "Voice of Maureen Bunyan Pivotal To Robert Wone Case," "EMS Worker Was Suspicious of Robert Wone [...]

Columbia Road, NW © 2010 Matt Dunn

Curious about how property values have held up in D.C. neighborhoods? Check this map—click to enlarge:

And here's a table of neighborhood values, arranged from greatest decline to least:

The assessed value of city property has dropped by about six percent since a year ago, the Office of Tax and Revenue announced this morning.
But the news might not be great for homeowners looking for a break on their upcoming tax bills: Most of the drop is due to falling commercial property values; residential properties [...]

”I was just distracted, frankly.”
—Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry, Feb. 10

For three months of the year—tax season—Don and his wife, Linda, move into an office above a jumbo slice shop in Adams Morgan. In the third-floor space, there's a futon where they sleep at night. By day, it's set up as a spot for clients to talk with Linda, who does the initial work on [...]

UPDATE, 3:35 P.M.: Nickles will pursue garnishment of wages—details at bottom of post.
Federal prosecutors this afternoon filed court documents saying not only did Marion Barry not file his federal tax return, but that he failed for seven months to repay back taxes owed the very government he's been elected to serve.
The revelations come in a [...]

The FY2010 budget proposal submitted by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty on Friday contained a number of fee hikes. Many of those are intended to fall on businesses, but there was one that will fall broadly on District residents: A "Street Light User Fee," intended to "cover the costs associated with the operation and maintenance of [...]

Ward 8 Councilmember Marion Barry's had a tough couple of weeks. The Washington Post reported that he never filed a 2007 tax return, reopening a longstanding drama; then federal prosecutors decided they wanted him thrown in jail. He even made Leno.
In these troubling times, Barry has a simple request for his council colleagues: Shut the [...]