In this month’s column, we’re going to talk about why the District has unexpected deficits or surpluses sometimes such as the $140 million in bonus money announced at the end of September and how we can best use our resources given this volatility.
The amount of money our local government brings in and, therefore, the amount we can spend is varies based on many factors. Some of those factors the District has more control over like what tax rates are set and some the District has less control over like whether the federal government will do a massive spending cut in a move called sequestration.