Fenty Pushes Forward with Closing the District’s Budget Gap

Today Mayor Adrian M. Fenty announced plans to move forward with closing the District’s $131 million budget gap.

This month, Fenty proposed a gap-closing measure that would maintain the District’s balanced FY 2009 budget by reducing expenditures by $59.6 million and making use of $71.4 million in available resources primarily from O-type accounts.

At a press conference this morning, the Mayor took action to immediately reduce the budgets of executive branch agencies in accordance with the administration’s gap closing proposal. The Mayor, today, issued an Executive Order reducing funds of the subordinate executive branch agencies. The order doesn’t include independent agencies whose budgets can only be reduced with legislative action.

The proposed FY 2009 Gap-Closing Plan will resolve a projected revenue shortfall of $131 million, by recognizing a total of $71,420,000 in Local Fund revenues and by rescinding $59,592,085 from General Fund appropriations.  Of the amount proposed to be rescinded from government agencies, $52.2 million derives from the budgets of subordinate executive branch agencies and the Workforce Investment Fund, a non-departmental account.  

According to Mayor Fenty, “This Administration must move forward in ensuring the District is fiscally sound. This is simply the first step in bridging the city’s financial gap.”  

As proposed in the gap closing plan, the Mayor’s Order reduces the budgets of subordinate executive branch agencies as shown on the following table.

• FY 2009 Proposed Gap-Closing Plan