(Washington, DC) Today, Mayor Muriel Bowser testified in support of her Fiscal Year 2023 Fair Shot Budget.
Below is the Mayor’s full testimony, as delivered:
Good afternoon, Chairman. I want to wish a good afternoon to members of the Council, present and participating. I am pleased to testify today on my Fiscal Year 2023 Fair Shot Budget.
This budget is one that reflects what we are hearing from DC residents – their concerns about public safety and affordability, about how we can better ensure all residents have access to safe and dignified housing, about how we can make our roads safer and continue to rethink how we use public space and commercial corridors. It makes big investments in our young people – through our schools and facilities, but also through significant investments in early learning and out-of-school time activities.
Mr. Chairman, we appear before you today to make the case for my proposal, to answer your questions, and to do so with the dignity that this process demands and in a way that makes DC residents proud of both our executive branch and yours – two co-equal branches of government.
This $19.5 billion budget is the most equitable budget in the history of the District of Columbia. DC has a lot to be proud of, as a city, when it comes to our work around giving more DC residents a fair shot.
In just the past several months, I have stood side by side with you as we:
- Broke ground on a new hospital on the St. Elizabeths campus in Ward 8 to address health inequalities and opened, at the same campus, a new 801 East Men’s Shelter to better support men experiencing homelessness.
- We launched a pilot to give new and expectant moms in Wards 5, 7, and 8 direct cash assistance of $900 a month.
- We celebrated the groundbreaking of a new grocery store at Skyland in Ward 7.
- We cut the ribbon on the new Good Food Markets in Ward 8 and celebrated new tech jobs at the intersection of Martin Luther King Avenue and Good Hope Road.
- We witnessed the progress at our DC Infrastructure Academy, which I created to make sure DC residents had a fair shot at good-paying jobs in infrastructure. And since we opened in 2018, more than 1,900 DC residents have been trained for careers in high-demand infrastructure industries.
And when you look back beyond the past few months, there’s even more we could celebrate:
- The fact that in six years we drove down family homelessness by 73% and produced the blueprint that will allow us to transform the men’s singles system
- We have transformed our public education system over the past 15 years because of taxpayer investments, mayoral accountability, and Council oversight.
- Today DC has one of the lowest uninsured rates in the nation because of our work together.
- And the diversity of our small businesses and the recognition we have received as a top city for Black women entrepreneurs.
So, in big ways and small, we are rightfully refusing to lose our Chocolate City identity and our reputation for being a city where Black residents can thrive and build a strong middle class. And this is not just true of Black and Brown residents; it is a sentiment shared by residents of all races and backgrounds, across all eight wards.
But the anxiety of our residents is growing, and it is especially growing for Black and Brown residents. The achievements and progress I just listed only mean so much to Washingtonians who are looking at their household budgets and wondering how much longer they can afford to stay in DC. Or residents who are watching the rise in gun violence and wondering if the next victim will be someone they love.
So, when I say that this is the most equitable budget in the history of Washington, DC, I say that because with this budget, and with this $19.5 billion, we will do two things:
First, we are funding short-term and immediate solutions to some of our greatest challenges around affordability and public safety. For example, we lay out a path to get MPD back to 4,000 officers; and this year, we fund the hiring of 347 officers. This year, we propose using $31 million to end chronic homelessness for 500 single adults and 260 families.
But because this budget is so big, we have an opportunity to go much deeper than just funding immediate solutions. We have the opportunity to attack, in very intentional ways, the root causes of our anxieties and inequities.
So, with a $5.7 billion health and human services budget, we can fund programs that primarily serve Washingtonians who are disproportionately affected by disparities in health outcomes, wealth, and opportunity. We are completing the build out of a new hospital and integrated health care system East of the River – as I promised in my inaugural address in 2015; we are ending chronic homelessness; connecting more seniors to dental care services and nutritional foods; helping LGBTQ residents find housing and jobs; making sure more DC residents are insured and have access to high-quality health care; and funding the mental and behavioral health care people need to live healthy lives, starting with highly trained professionals in our elementary schools. We are also funding an increase to the wages of direct service professionals – mostly minority workers who take care of some of our most vulnerable residents.
With a $500 million Housing Production Trust Fund we can add thousands of new affordable homes. As I sit here today, we have a pool of $398 million in applications and another set of applicants waiting to apply – waiting for you to say yes to $500 million in additional investment. We can continue the work we started with the Housing Equity Report and neighborhood targets for affordable housing – work that is rooted in the belief that through smart and intentional policy we can make real progress in fixing the legacy of redlining in DC.
With $251 million for a new jail, we can intentionally design and build a facility that better supports our values as a community. And that intention is to help people transform their lives while serving their time. Our intention is to build a facility that better supports rehabilitation and successful reentry. And for people not in custody who need help escaping dangerous cycles of violence, we are funding a new Life Coach program – part of our growing budget for a public health approach to preventing violence.
With a $40 million package of Legacy Initiatives, we can help more Black residents who, right now, are wondering whether they need to move out of DC to afford rent; and how we can support their wealth-building. And we know the best way to do that is through home ownership. We can also help seniors age in place by lowering the cap on property taxes. And by providing legal assistance to families, we can help more Washingtonians pass on their homes to the next generation – keeping families like mine, who have lived here for generations, in Washington, DC.
With a $2.2 billion education budget, we can address the immediate pandemic-related needs of our students and DC Public Schools families so that they can have a strong equity-based budget model that ensures at-risk students who need the most are getting the most. Additionally, we will continue to make progress in adding more high-quality child care seats across the city, with another round of Access to Quality grants and $68 million to add more than 500 infant and toddler seats in our DCPS portfolio. And for our older learners, we added $900,000 to the UDC budget to retain a strong teaching staff and increased the capital budget by over $18 million to support their renovations.
And with $13.5 million for expanded recreation, starting this summer, and another $60 million to build a new indoor sports complex on the RFK campus, we can ensure kids in all eight wards, regardless of their families’ income, can grow up with the same opportunities to play sports and enjoy the benefits of being an athlete that wealthy and middle-class children across our country have access to.
And as you dig – as I’ve heard you say – into the budget, you will see that there is so much more in this budget that will help us level the playing field for DC residents who are right now are feeling left out or pushed out.
Of course, I’ve also heard this comment and I’m looking forward to discussing how we will get these dollars out the door. Getting $19.5 billion out the door is going to take an enormous amount of effort, coordination, and expertise.
We are fortunate in DC Government that we have been a leader in efficiency when compared to other state governments, even during an unprecedented two years of modified work. But we know there is room for more efficiency, and you will see that reflected in this budget.
Internally, we have already started making process improvements, like streamlined work order fulfillment and preventive maintenance at District-owned properties including our schools, parks, and recreation centers. These are changes that make me confident that we will be able to get the $46 million out the door we have budgeted for school HVAC and boiler replacements at schools like our all-girls Excel Academy. And we can get those funds out the door quickly.
We are also requesting coordination from the Council in removing some duplicative bureaucracy, especially when it involves time-sensitive dollars like those attached to American Rescue Plan Act funds; when it involves previously approved option year contract extensions to repair our bridges, roadways, and sidewalks; or when it duplicates oversight functions of the DC Auditor or the DC Council itself.
And, of course, we are focused on ensuring that DC Government is attracting, hiring, and retaining employees who come to work every day and move our city forward. I have said it so many times, but I want to say it again today: the 37,000 men and women who got us through the last two years, and who are going to propel us in our comeback, are an incredible team of public servants - and we, as a city, owe them a lot. I am grateful for our team, and I am grateful that the Council is thinking through how we can continue to attract high-quality talent, and I ask for your close coordination on any changes that would be a drastic change to our leave policies, that could leave agencies like our fire department, police department, and school system in an untenable or, quite frankly, illegal staffing circumstance.
But again, we already know that DC Government can attract top talent – I see them serving our city every single day. Many of those employees were involved in putting together this historic budget; many more will be involved in delivering the programs within it. And people still want to join our team. Just this week, 10,000 people registered to participate in the District’s job fair, for about 500 postings; and we already made 100 job offers on the spot, with more to come. I’m excited that people want to work for us, and I can’t wait to see all that our team, with you Mr. Chairman and members, continues to accomplish together.
With that, Jenny Reed, my Budget Director, and Kevin Donahue, the City Administrator for the District, are happy to answer your questions.
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