Dear Friends and Colleagues, As 2020 comes to a close, I have been thinking a lot about the high highs and the low lows of this unprecedented year. The Budget Office team entered the year expecting full reserves, hundreds of millions of dollars of additional resources, and ever increasing revenues throughout the financial plan. By March we had delayed the budget transmission and were staring down the greatest public health emergency in a century, a severe economic downturn that left thousands unemployed and businesses on the brink of closure, and tax revenues on the decline.
Given all of this, the FY 2021 budget approved by the Council confronted these challenges and made critical investments that aimed to meet both the moment and the long-term needs of all District residents. This fall, the Budget Office released a series of summary reports highlighting the Council’s budget enhancements in the areas of:
Economic Justice, and
During the budget process, we provided several tools on our website to make budget data more accessible and transparent. Our dashboards included one for reviewing the Mayor’s proposed FY21 budget, one for the District’s fee schedule and another on the District’s fine schedule, and one for DC Public Schools. Over the past several months, we’ve been working to improve and expand our data dashboards and will be rolling out new versions in the coming weeks and months.
As the Council conducted legislative business throughout the year, our office issued over 225 fiscal impact statements on amendments, resolutions, emergency, and temporary measures. This included analysis of the multiple pieces of COVID emergency legislation passed by the Council. We will continue posting all fiscal impact statements by legislative meeting to our website as we move into Council Period 24. In addition, stay tuned for a new and improved fiscal impact statement format we will roll out next year!
We also produced multiple tools and resources for both you and the public regarding budgetary and other fiscal matters important to the District. This included hosting a series of brown bag sessions for staff covering a range of topics including an introduction to our office, a Budget 101 and a more in depth Budget 201 presentation on the specifics of the budget, and an overview of the budget books. We look forward to resuming these sessions for new and returning staff next year!
Our new Research Division launched a series on older adult residents. The first report offers a demographic profile of D.C.’s 83,600 seniors, examining who seniors are, where they live, and how they make ends meet. The second report focuses on the public supports available to seniors. It is a great resource for constituent services staff looking to connect older adults with everything from discounted cell phone service to adult day care programs. Stay tuned in January for a third report in the senior series about the cost of living for low and moderate-income older adults. It looks at which seniors qualify for what public benefits and tax benefits, and it points to areas in which public benefits may be too thick or too thin.
The Research Division also forged a new partnership with Pew Charitable Trust and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Health Impact Project in 2020. This collaboration resulted in the release of the Council’s first Health Note analyzing the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2020 (Bill 23-882). We anticipate issuing at least four more Health Notes on legislation introduced during Council Period 24.
Leading up to the November election, the Research Division examined absentee ballot requirements finding out how D.C.’s laws and regulations stacked up against the 50 states.
The Research Division success in 2020 builds upon its past work. In recent years, the Budget Office authored a report on paid family and medical leave that was cited on December 9th by the Washington Business Journal for the accuracy of its predictions, an award-winning study on universal basic income, and a research brief on how to clean up our waterways without unduly burdening D.C. Water customers.
In 2021, the Budget Office team looks forward to working with all of you, chatting in the hallways of the Wilson Building and returning to some semblance of pre-pandemic life.
Sincerely, and in good health, Jen Budoff