April 3, 2015 | Volume 1, Issue 11
Friends,
The budget is how we set our priorities. After my team and I
held three budget engagement forums and attended dozens of community meetings,
we heard your message loud and clear: DC must do all that it can to create and
preserve pathways to the middle class.
On Thursday, I did just that by delivering the
District’s 20th consecutive balanced budget to the Council. It is a budget you
helped create and includes additional funding to improve schools, make our
streets safer, and make strategic investments in programs to end homelessness.
Assembling the budget was not easy. In the next fiscal year, we
face a $190 million budget gap with costs growing faster than revenue. We
closed the gap and found ways to invest in other priorities.
In order to invest in programs to end homelessness, fund
Metro, invest in our schools and contribute $100 million to the Housing
Production Trust Fund, we had to find additional dollars. We did that by
returning the sales tax to 6%, the rate it has been at for four of the last six
years, to help pay for our programs to combat homelessness. We also proposed
increasing the tax on parking garages by 4% to help ensure public transit
service fees are not raised and service is not cut.
If you want to read more, you can view the entire budget here. If you missed the State of the District,
you can view it HERE.
If you agree that creating and preserving pathways to the middle
class should be our guiding principle, then make your voice heard at the
Council, in your neighborhood and on social media during the budget season.
Together, we will give residents in all 8 wards a fair shot.
Sincerely,
Mayor Bowser
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