Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser on Friday unveiled what she said is her last budget before stepping down later this year, setting out $21.2 billion in gross operating spending for the District of Columbia and aiming at Democrats and Republicans alike for a fight over what should be protected and what should be cut.
In the proposal, Bowser prioritized education and health care spending, with Medicaid highlighted among the areas she plans to fund. At the same time, the plan would reduce funding in several categories, including $127 million set aside for future collective bargaining agreements and non-union pay increases for city employees, according to her presentation to the District Council.
A key part of the budget framework is the shift in “general funds,” which pay for city services. Bowser’s proposal would reduce the general funds budget to $12.7 billion, a 3.3% cut from 2026, even as she described the plan as necessary to respond to fiscal pressure.
Bowser told Council members the city is “not broke” as she walked them through what she described as the “three periods” of her tenure: days of growth, the COVID-economic years, and the post-COVID period. She connected the current constraints to federal actions she attributed to the Trump administration’s efforts to shrink the federal government, saying, “We are adjusting to what DOGE has done to our workforce and commercial corridor,” and pointing to a budget gap she said the District must address.
Bowser said the rising costs and decreased revenue were driven in part by federal workforce reductions and higher spending pressures, including higher Medicaid expenses and higher administration costs for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program because of a federal law change that shifted some costs to states. She argued that members needed to remain clear-headed about where the District is and what it would take to keep growing, saying, “I think we all have to be clear-headed about where we are and what it will take to keep growing.”
Council members questioned Bowser and city staff on targets included in the proposal, including changes aimed at programs intended to help offset child care costs. In particular, they challenged the plan’s approach to child care for low-income families and to workforce-related supports for child care providers.
Bowser’s budget would cap the District’s child care subsidy program, which helps the city’s poorest families afford care, at 6,000 children, while families already receiving subsidies would continue to receive them. The proposal would also eliminate a program that supplemented the wages of child care providers, a measure passed during the pandemic to help attract and retain workers in a field with historically low wages.
District Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said the council would likely vote on the budget in June. The timeline and stakes are heightened by the District’s complicated recent budget history, including a 2025 federal government funding bill the House passed that would require the District to revert to 2024 budget parameters, cutting $1.1 billion from its previously balanced budget midway through the financial year.
The financial backdrop for Bowser’s proposal also includes analysis of impacts from changes to the federal workforce in the region. Terry Clower, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University, estimated that more than 50,000 jobs were lost in the Washington region, and said the job losses meant more than lost pay and income taxes for workers, also affecting businesses that depend on that spending. The D.C. Office of Revenue Analysis estimated Washington had a net loss of 22,000 federal jobs with combined annual pay of more than $3 billion.
City Administrator Kevin Donahue said the reduction in the federal workforce—primarily attributed by the city to DOGE—cost about $325 million in lost revenue from cuts in jobs and associated consumer spending, and said those losses would be even higher in the 2027 fiscal year.
Bowser’s budget proposal, framed as a late-tenure plan meant to set terms for the District’s next fiscal year, is expected to spark negotiations in both the District Council and on Capitol Hill, where Republican lawmakers have shown a growing willingness to interject into local affairs, according to the Associated Press report.