At a time when many DC residents—particularly Black and brown residents and those with low incomes—are in crisis, Mayor Bowser continues to push forward disproven, ineffective trickle-down economic strategies that would further benefit the corporate elite, reduce already tight revenue, and exacerbate racial disparities. Her last budget slashed or left unfunded an array of programs for health, housing, ending homelessness, and economic security even as DC unemployment is the highest in the nation, cuts to federal food assistance and health coverage loom large, and unhoused neighbors, immigrants, and young Black men are targeted by federal agents.
Meanwhile, the most recent revenue projection from DC’s Chief Financial Officer show that the District’s revenue gains are driven by rising corporate profits and non-wage income like capital gains, suggesting that corporations and wealthy residents continue to benefit the most from DC’s economic growth. The mayor and Council should respond to this crisis by crafting economic policies that center investments in Black and brown communities, rather than continuing failed top-down strategies.
The Mayor’s Inequality Agenda Puts Businesses Ahead of People
Mayor Bowser unveiled her economic growth agenda in May as part of her fiscal year (FY) 2026 budget proposal. The agenda builds off some goals from her 2023 comeback plan, but the new agenda focuses nearly exclusively on businesses and does not mention addressing racial inequities. The mayor’s agenda focuses on the types of changes big businesses want to see, like providing business subsidies and tax breaks, decreasing regulations, and lifting environmental requirements. She also disproportionately focuses on downtown, such as converting offices to residences and other commercial spaces. Finally, Mayor Bowser calls for doubling down on the sports, entertainment, and technology sectors in DC.
The DC Council approved several pieces of the mayor’s growth agenda, most notably a deal with the Commanders to build a new stadium that will cost the District at least $8 billion in direct subsidies, tax breaks, and land giveaways. Councilmembers also approved her proposed spending on downtown, such as the Gallery Square project, and expanded the geographic area for the unproven Housing in Downtown tax abatement.
The mayor’s latest round of economic proposals—many of which the Council rejected in the FY 2026 budget—are more minor in scope but still harmful to Black and brown residents. For example:
- The Poker and Blackjack Gaming Authorization Act would legalize poker and blackjack in DC despite research showing gambling disproportionately harms people with lower incomes and Black and brown individuals.
- The Vending Compliance and Modernization Amendment Act would resurrect a misdemeanor penalty for unlicensed street vending. This policy would disproportionately harm Black and brown residents, including entrepreneurial immigrants who are already facing threats from immigration crackdowns.
The Mayor’s Strategy Will Exacerbate Racial Inequities and Won’t Grow the Economy
The mayor’s growth plan comes at a time when DC’s Black and brown residents and those with low incomes are struggling even more than usual. The 2024 poverty rate in DC rose by more than 3 percentage points to 17.3 percent, and Black poverty was 30.5 percent. These abysmal poverty numbers don’t even capture the hits to DC’s economy in 2025 from the slashing of the federal workforce, which is likely to hit Black residents the hardest, nor the deep cuts by Congress to food assistance and health coverage.
Mayor Bowser claims that her growth plan addresses these challenges. In July, she stated that, “sports and entertainment will help us replace some of the economic activity lost by federal job loss,” even though jobs in this sector are generally lower paid and less stable than federal jobs. When responding to criticism that her plan is focused too heavily on downtown and not well-targeted to struggling communities, her administration points to capital investments in schools and libraries East of the River, although those are common investments across all wards.
In fact, Bowser’s top-down approach is the opposite of what drives economic growth, in large part because her plan doesn’t intentionally center racial equity. High inequality impedes economic growth, research shows. Instead of trying to narrow inequality, the mayor, with support from DC Council, is scaling back many policies designed to address inequality and racial disparities like Initiative 82 that would have raised the tipped minimum wage to the regular minimum wage and the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) that allows tenants the right to buy their building when it goes up for sale. Bowser’s financial plan for FY 2026-2029 also zeroed out the Pay Equity Fund (PEF) beginning in FY 2027, though PEF makes wages livable for the mostly Black and brown child care workforce and stabilizes the child care industry, which in turn helps grow the economy.
Bowser and the Council also cut critical safety net programs that help residents with low incomes make ends meet, such as the Healthcare Alliance that provides health care coverage to residents with low incomes—most of whom are immigrants—and the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP) that prevents evictions by helping residents pay overdue rent. Moreover, Bowser’s continued focus on business tax breaks is squeezing already-constrained District revenue, leaving even less funding for vital services just as DC is expected to go into an economic downturn. Past recessions show that economic downturns hit Black households the hardest and that public investments to meet people’s basic needs are key to an equitable recovery. DC should be doubling down on investments in programs that serve Black and brown residents, rather than cutting them.
The overall impact of the mayor’s growth strategy is likely to be more concentration of wealth, worsening racial inequities, decreased economic growth for DC, and a prolonged economic downturn and slower recovery, especially for Black and brown residents. Instead, the mayor and Council should respond to this moment of crisis for District residents with a new economic strategy that funds bottom up and middle out policies that grow wages and income, particularly for Black residents, like the Pay Equity Fund. It means shoring up and expanding programs that help workers and businesses alike, like subsidizing child care and health coverage. It means preventing evictions and expanding affordable housing to reduce the share of income residents pay toward rent.
