Gandhi to the Rescue

Not to be confused with this Gandhi, Natwar Gandhi, DC's chief financial officer and (perhaps) only competent public official, yesterday announced that the revenues projected to fund the DC Council's recently approved legislation to rebuild and/or remodel DC's public schools are already not there. And we are only looking at year one of a ten year project and are in an economic boom.

The Council members had promised that this mammoth legislation would be funded without tax increases, as reported in the Washington Post last month:

"Today we will fully fund school modernization and provide a dedicated funding source to ensure that this funding remains available for future fiscal years while avoiding increasing taxes to the most overtaxed residents and businesses of anywhere in the country," said council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), who chairs the committee.

The Washington Examiner yesterday noted:

Evans... will also recommend an increase to the deed recordation and transfer taxes as "a backstop" should the city not collect enough sales tax. A 0.10 cent increase in the tax raises an estimated $34 million annually, officials said.

Wow, that stunning reversal only took a month! It also doesn't take a genius to realize that this $34 million "backstop" in new taxes likely won't do it. Most interesting, perhaps, is that the Washington Examiner calls this a $3 billion project, while the Washington Post tallies it at $1 billion.