The D.C. Council on Tuesday finalized a $21.2 billion budget for the 2027 fiscal year, restoring funding for social services that Mayor Muriel Bowser had proposed cutting while at the same time finding itself locked in a showdown with the city’s chief financial officer over how it did so.
The dispute – in which neither side yet seemed willing to blink – could have significant implications, potentially attracting congressional intervention and throwing D.C.’s long-standing fiscal stability into question.
It involves $150 million that Chairman Phil Mendelson is pulling out of one of D.C.’s four rainy-day funds as part of a broader $420 million move to undo cuts that Bowser had made to health care programs, child care subsidies, housing vouchers and cash assistance for low-income residents.