D.C. Council members told the city’s chief financial officer on Monday that they are tired of being asked to tap District taxpayers and employees to cover his predicted revenue shortfalls when the city ended 2011 with a $240 million surplus.
“There should be a way to resolve this internally,” Council Chairman Kwame Brown told District CFO Natwar Gandhi at a hearing. “That seems to be a huge disconnect.”
Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans, who is chairman of the council’s finance and revenue committee, said he’s getting scores of emails from constituents, some of whom are city employees who were furloughed for four days last year because of a tight 2011 budget.
“Can we give people the money we took from them?” he asked Gandhi.
The council’s comments came during a session with Mayor Vincent Gray‘s financial staff on Gandhi’s audit of the city’s finances last year, which includes his revenue predictions through 2015. Members complained that they are asked to approve budget cuts based on Gandhi’s analysis that times will be tight in the future — but doomsday never seems to come.
At-Large Councilman David Catania, a critic of Gandhi’s, called the most recent revenue projections “the most hysterical piece of fiction I’ve ever seen,” referring to a projected $130 million deficit in 2015.
Gray’s financial team, however, said it’s not only normal but it’s financially healthy for cities to end the year with 1 to 2 percent extra. The $240 million surplus in 2011 was roughly 2.5 percent of the city’s budget.
Gandhi said it’s almost impossible for an agency to spend precisely all of its allotted money. And even then, it’s treading a dangerous line because the District’s savings accounts have to be funded.
“What [Mr. Catania] completely forgets is the history of this city,” he said, referring to the Financial Control Board era of the 1990s when the city’s savings account dwindled to a mere $31 million thanks to unchecked spending. Congress established a five-member body to run the city’s finances in 1995 until the board was suspended in 2001.
“If we ever generate a deficit,” Gandhi said, “that could lead to the conditions that would impose the control board again.”
