Mayor Bowser’s proposed fiscal year (FY) 2026 budget and financial plan abandons residents with the lowest incomes to fend for themselves just as DC enters a recession and Congress threatens to gut safety net programs, while doubling down on disproven strategies for growing the economy. Her proposal:
Harms Vulnerable People, Workers, and Renters and Exacerbates Racial Inequities
- Despite assurances otherwise, effectively eliminates in October 2026 the Pay Equity Fund, which increases compensation and affordable health care for early educators, stabilizes the child care sector, and disrupts the centuries-long undervaluing of caregiving that disproportionately harms Black and brown women.
- Repeals the I-82 wage increases for tipped workers, despite being approved twice by DC voters.
- Cuts back universal paid leave program benefits, despite available funding.
- Repeals the Child Tax Credit and ends the “baby bonds” program, both of which would reduce racial income and wealth gaps.
- Cuts Temporary Assistance for Needy Families by reinstituting a time limit and harsh work requirement for adults in families and eliminates the program’s annual cost of living adjustment.
- Phases out Health Care Alliance coverage for adults over age 21 and institutes a moratorium on new enrollees.
- Limits longstanding tenants’ rights and makes it easier to evict struggling renters, while reducing help to residents behind on paying rent.
Squanders DC’s limited resources on ineffective strategies that benefit businesses:
- Suspends taxes on restaurant meals via “sales tax holidays,” despite the fact that research shows these tend to be costly, benefit wealthy residents the most, and enable businesses to exploit consumers with higher prices.
- Extends the life of the Ball Park Fee and dedicates $155 million in capital funds to RFK stadium over the financial plan, with additional investment to come in later years.
- Expands the Housing in Downtown tax abatement to Georgetown and Mt. Vernon Triangle at current funding levels in FY 2026 without proof the program is meeting its goals and that office-to-residential conversions wouldn’t happen absent the subsidy. In FY 2027, her proposal temporarily cuts the program by $1.8 million before the program vastly expands in FY 2028.
DC Fiscal Policy Institute Executive Director Erica Williams released the following statement:
“Mayor Bowser’s budget demonstrates total disdain for those who struggle to make ends meet. It continues to remake DC as a place that only the very wealthy can afford to live by taking cash assistance, health care coverage, paid leave benefits, and wages from people with the fewest resources under the false pretense of ‘right-sizing’ spending. Meanwhile, it sinks scarce public dollars into investments that an abundance of research has shown won’t grow anything but the profits of corporations and billionaire sports-team owners.
This is not a ‘growth agenda.’ It’s an inequality agenda. DC is entering a period of extreme hardship, with growing unemployment, a local recession, and likely devastating cuts to health coverage and food assistance at the federal level. But instead of fortifying local programs to shelter residents from the coming storm, Bowser’s proposal leaves DC’s most vulnerable residents out in the cold.”