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After 10 Years, DC Control Board is Gone but not Forgotten
| Source: |
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Washington Post (DC) |
| Date: |
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Sunday, January 30, 2011 |
| Author: |
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Mike DeBonis |
The District faces the most politically difficult budget decisions since that era, and officials are contending with the legacy of the most humiliating episode in the city's 36 years of home rule. From 1995 to 2001, day-to-day management of most District functions was wrested from city officials and placed in the hands of a five-member federally appointed panel.
The financial control board might be gone, but the prospect that it could be resurrected is figuring prominently with some city officials.
"The grim reaper is at the door, and, frankly, I will not sit here and be a part of any exercise that results in having a control board come back to the District of Columbia," said Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) before a vote on a measure to close the city's budget gap in December, when he was still D.C. Council chairman.
D.C. officials estimate that the coming budget will have a shortfall that could reach $600 million. Although the city is much stronger economically and has balanced its budget every year since 1997, elected officials have not been shy in bringing up the past. The scale of the fiscal challenge is reminiscent of the $722 million budget deficit that led to the control board's creation. A new Republican majority in the House has also stirred memories.
"We have a Republican Congress coming in in January that would like nothing better than to take over this city again and say, 'We told you so,' " D.C. Council member Jack Evans (D-Ward 2) said at the same December meeting, waving 1995-vintage news clips from the dais.
Alice M. Rivlin, a former presidential budget director who served as chairwoman of the control board from 1998 to 2001, said it is "very unlikely" that the board could return. "It's part political rhetoric and part concern that we not slip back," she added.
But that is thanks, in large part, to the changes of the control era. And some say fears over the panel's reappearance prove that the control board is still doing its work...
Read the full article below:
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01 /30/AR2011013003901.html
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