I asked recently would any elected official represent the interest of average District residents in the debate over whether Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi implemented the Tax Clarity Act of 2000, which mandated a tax on refinanced loans for commercial real estate. D.C. Councilman David Catania last week answered that call.
Hallelujah!
In a letter dated June 30, he blasted Gandhi for failing to implement the law as written which, by some estimates, may have cost the District $100 million in lost revenues.
Catania challenged previous assertions by the CFO that he and his team have followed the law correctly. The at-large legislator also accused Gandhi of deliberately misrepresenting certain facts.
“While your attempt to create ambiguity surrounding what is plain and clear may make for good media strategy, it reveals a troubling inability to be forthcoming with District residents,” said Catania, who demanded the CFO provide by July 11 documents to substantiate his claims of no harm to the city.
Catania also asked Attorney General Irvin B. Nathan and the council’s general counsel, David Zvenyach, to provide opinions regarding the dictates of the 2000 tax law and how the CFO should have implemented it.
Questions about how Gandhi and his team collected the recordation tax first surfaced in February, when Jeffrey Mitchell, of Oldaker Law Group, and his associate James Stanton, after conducting independent research, brought the matter to Mayor Vincent C. Gray and the CFO. The lawyers subsequently met with several council members. And yet, during the intervening months, Jack Evans, the chairman of the Committee on Finance and Revenue which has oversight of Gandhi’s operation, did not convene a roundtable to gather facts. The Ward 2 legislator also never requested, as Catania has done, any opinions from independent legal experts. Instead, he has been satisfied to take Gandhi’s word, ignoring the CFO’s inherent self-interest in playing down the problem.
By contrast, when concerns were raised recently about the implementation of online gambling in the District, Evans immediately convened a public hearing. (I’ll talk about this later in the week.)
Last week, the council and Gray met to discuss the city’s projected $100 million deficit for fiscal year 2011 and the city’s continuing concerns about insufficient revenues to keep the police force at the optimal level of 3,900 officers. While the CFO has adjusted upward revenue projections for 2011 and 2012, the city still may not have enough money to restore its cash reserves and hire more police officers.
If Gandhi were to implement the 2000 tax clarity law as written, there could be additional revenues to satisfy the District’s needs. There also may be enough money to prevent planned employee furloughs.
Fortunately, Catania understands the legal and financial implications associated with the CFO’s failures. But Evans and Gandhi, the two individuals most responsible for the city’s fiscal health, have decided to engage in what is starting to look like an elaborate cover up.
jonetta rose barras can be reached at [email protected]
Jonetta Rose Barras’s column appears on Monday and Wednesday. She can be reached at [email protected].
