Wilson Building Bulletin: A cold dose of reality on D.C.’s budget

“It has come to our attention… that we may be operating in different realities.”

That’s how City Administrator Kevin Donahue opened his discussion with the D.C. Council earlier this week during a breakfast meeting between Mayor Muriel Bowser and city lawmakers. 

The main topic of discussion was the 2027 budget, which Bowser is now drafting and will present to the council in April. And the message she and Donahue conveyed was unmistakable: The years of growing revenues and rosy economic forecasts are over, and the 2027 budget will be a tough one. That’s the reality, Donahue said. Some councilmembers and advocates, he added, may not be living in it.

According to his presentation, the revenue available for the 2027 budget will be $11.3 billion – some $700 million less than what the city is spending this year. And when coupled with expiring one-time spending and ongoing inflation, the gap between this year and next grows to more than $1.1 billion. “I did budgets in the recession,” said Donahue. “This is as hard as what we did during the recession.”

The reality check comes on top of the challenging budget the council had to navigate last year, which included significant cuts to healthcare programs for low-income residents, reductions to emergency rental assistance, shortfalls in the child care subsidy program, and more. (Yes, D.C. is putting more than $1 billion into the construction of the new Commanders stadium site, but that money comes out of the capital budget, not the operating budget that funds services and programs.)

Donahue and Bowser’s talk to the council came only days after Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau, Ward 4’s Janeese Lewis George, Ward 6’s Charles Allen, and At-Large Councilmember Christina Henderson wrote asking her not to make further cuts to social services – and in some cases, restore funding that was reduced over the last two years. “The safety net is at risk of being dismantled and in desperate need of corrective action,” they wrote. That same message has been communicated by the left-leaning D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute (DCFPI). 

For those groups, it’s a matter of setting priorities and finding the revenue. But for Bowser, it’s unrealistic. She told lawmakers that if they reverse policy changes and funding cuts that have been implemented this year on Medicaid and the Health Care Alliance, which provides healthcare to immigrant residents, the city would see $1 billion in additional expenses over the next four years.

DCFPI, for its part, is advocating that the council close a tax loophole on businesses and raise taxes on wealthy residents; the group estimates that could bring in more than $500 million in new money yearly. Last year, the council rejected a modest tax increase on capital gains, and it remains to be seen whether lawmakers feel comfortable pursuing more ambitious revenue-raisers this year.

“The answer is not so simple as, ‘Oh, just increase taxes.’ Because to increase taxes by a billion dollars would be very significant, something the District has never done,” Chairman Phil Mendelson told The 51st.

But before the council even gets to the 2027 budget, lawmakers said they had a bone to pick with Bowser over last year’s budget. In December, CFO Glen Lee said a one-time surplus gave the council an additional $51 million to immediately work with, which lawmakers put into a number of programs on a contingency list. The largest single expense was $21 million to undo some eligibility cuts for the Health Care Alliance. 

But to date, Bowser hasn’t allowed that money to be spent. At the breakfast, she told lawmakers that the money should address the fiscal pain to come, but some lawmakers bristled at her refusal to spend money they have required her to spend. 

“We can debate the semantics, but it’s the law,” said Ward 5 Councilmember Zachary Parker.

“The law doesn’t say, ‘Do it tomorrow,’ and the law doesn't preclude me from coming to the council and saying, ‘Let’s do something differently,’” responded Bowser.

Trayon’s trial date is finally set

Ever since he was arrested on federal bribery charges in August 2024, Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White has been waiting for his day in court – as has much of the city’s political class. That day is now set.

On Wednesday, U.S. Judge Rudolph Contreras scheduled White’s five-day trial to start on September 14, moving forward after a series of delays that set back the proceedings almost nine months. 

White was initially arrested in August 2024, charged with allegedly accepting $35,000 in bribes in exchange for helping a D.C. businessman keep and expand his violence-interruption contracts with the city. In October of last year, White dumped his federal public defenders, replacing them with experienced defense attorney Gary Kohlman. The sudden switch in representation led to the first delay in the trial, pushing it from January to March 2026. 

Earlier this month, Kohlman asked Contreras to further delay the trial, arguing that federal prosecutors had disclosed significant amounts of new information to the defense. That information included new details of phone and text messages between White and Allieu Kamara, the city contractor who allegedly bribed White while serving as an informant for the FBI. (D.C.’s spending on Kamara’s violence-interruption group, Life Deeds, recently came under increased scrutiny in a Washington Post story.) Contreras eventually agreed with Kohlman’s request, chiding the prosecutors for what he called an “unforced error.”

The trial date is now set, but there’s still plenty of legal jockeying to come. Last year, prosecutors asked Contreras to prohibit White from claiming he was the victim of government entrapment, a motion that Kohlman is fighting. White’s attorney says Kamara is a "prodigious criminal fraudster,” and insists that he should be able to argue that White was induced into allegedly taking bribes. 

Kohlman has also filed his own motions, including one asking that prosecutors be forbidden from bringing up White’s gambling at MGM Casino in Prince George’s County. Kohlman says the claims would be prejudicial to White, and prove nothing about the bribes he’s accused of accepting. Prosecutors argue that the proceeds of those alleged bribes were almost immediately converted into gambling chips. 

Finally, Kohlman has gone big with a motion asking that Contreras dismiss the entire indictment because of a lack of proof that White took any official action after allegedly accepting bribes from Kamara. The issue of what White did or did not do on Kamara’s behalf is critical to a federal bribery charge; a 2016 Supreme Court ruling involving former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell says that sustaining a bribery charge requires proving that the elected official actually did something official after being bribed. Prosecutors say the official actions White took are clear; he allegedly met with city officials to press for Kamara to keep receiving city contracts.

If all of that wasn’t enough to keep White busy, there’s the separate issue of a pending trial before the D.C. Board of Ethics and Government Accountability over his failure to file three required financial disclosure statements. But that proceeding – which could result in fines – is intertwined with his federal trial. Earlier this month, White’s attorney asked BEGA to delay the proceedings until after his federal trial over concerns that what White said to BEGA could potentially incriminate him in the federal trial. BEGA has so far rejected White’s request for that long a delay, but their proceedings against him have yet to be scheduled. 

In the meantime, White remains on the council; recall that he won his seat back last July in a special election after his colleagues chose to expel him over the charges he faces. His federal trial, though, will determine whether he gets expelled again – this time permanently. (Under D.C. law, anyone convicted of a felony is immediately removed from office.) And should that happen, it will set up yet another special election in Ward 8 at some point in early 2027.