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WARD 1 UPDATE
Hello Neighbors:
After weeks of delay and uncertainty, the Mayor has finally submitted her Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal to the District’s Chief Financial Officer. We now expect the proposal to come to the Council the week of May 26 for us to begin our budget oversight process and analysis.
This delay is not only frustrating: it has significant implications for our work and for our District. Normally, the Council would have received the budget six weeks ago, and we would finish our work in late May or early June, turning after to hearings on other measures of importance, such as public safety, housing, and transportation, to name just a few. We would then use the recess period to prepare these measures for final action in the fall.
In the current scenario, we will be considering the budget well into what would have been the recess period, meaning we won’t have time to do our other pressing work. Legislation that could have made it through the entire process and become law this year will likely be pushed further out into 2026. Legislation that could help our neighbors live better lives, that could make our city safer, that could put safe and affordable housing within reach of more people – all of it, delayed. The Mayor’s malpractice has consequences not only for the Council but is a problem for everyone in the District.
We are staring down what by all accounts will be a challenging budget, with billions of dollars of cuts on the table. But as I told WUSA9, those are conversations we can’t even have until we have the Mayor’s budget proposal in front of us for consideration.
Stay tuned for further updates, including how you can get involved in the budget process by testifying at a hearing.
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