It seems that “time” -- at least to us -- is a big deal this season.
Christmas decorations and Christmas music chased Halloween right out the door. Poor Thanksgiving this week barely has had a shot in the limelight.
One of the big movies now is “127 Hours.” It’s the gruesome, true-life tale of a man wedged in a ravine, freeing himself only by cutting off part of an arm.
A friend has been playing “Seasons of Love” from the Broadway show “Rent.” The lyrics are about how every year we spend or waste 525,600 minutes.
All this time stuff was on our mind Monday as Mayor-elect Vincent Gray gave his first major speech on the city’s woeful budget situation.
The District needs to cut more than $188 million from the current 2011 budget year, and it must do so by the end of December.
In addition, there’s a $345 million budget gap for the 2012 year. And budget cuts (or higher taxes) for that deficit need to be in place by early next spring.
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That’s a total of more than a half-billion dollars in less than six months. “How deep of a hole are we in?” Gray somberly asked on Monday as he laid out the budget numbers. He said he’d hold a public hearing on the budget next week and offered a warning for anyone who wants to testify.
“As you advance ideas,” he said, “please let it be more than ‘don’t-cut-this-or-that’ without offering ideas to balance the budget.”
It was good, real-life political theater, but something was missing. Gray offered no budget cuts himself. He was waiting for budget modifications expected any moment from Mayor Adrian Fenty.
While Gray left open the door for tax increases, Ward 2 D.C. Council member Jack Evans was pretty blunt about what needs to be done.
“Human services, public education and public safety. It makes up, along with debt service, 80 percent of our budget,” said Evans, who chairs the council’s Committee on Finance and Revenue. “You can’t cut debt service, so those three areas have to be trimmed back.”
He said higher taxes should be avoided in this sour economy. “Keep in mind,” Evans said, “our budget since 2002, the end of the [financial] control board era, has grown 65 percent. It’s an enormous amount of growth in spending, and you just have to cut it back.”
Gray said on Monday he would not consider tax increases until after he has exhausted a review of the spending options.
Evans said he believes some type of taxes will be raised, despite his opposition to the idea.
“In an environment where your growth is flat, it will not help you,” he said. “It’ll only buy you time until next year. Unless you bring down the expenditure curve, and bring it down dramatically, you’re endangering the health of the city.”
As we wrote this, we were still waiting for Mayor Fenty’s budget cutting proposals. Insiders were suggesting it would include about $150 million in cuts and about $30 million in “revenue enhancements,” but no significant tax increase.
We were told Fenty would be proposing a bunch of service cuts that would be hard to swallow. But he won’t be around after Jan. 2 to live with them.
Gray became the presumptive mayor after the September Democratic primary. That was 10 weeks ago. Or, as they’d say in Broadway terms, that was 100,800 minutes ago.
The financial clock is ticking for Mayor-elect Gray and the D.C. Council.
• Who’s in the cast?
Keeping with the time and theatrical theme, people remain anxious for Gray to start naming people who will serve in his cabinet. The Gray transition committees continue to meet and vet issues and potential candidates. Some Gray folks say the first names could be announced next week.
• Tick tock.
Nikita Stewart of The Washington Post reported that some of the shine has rubbed off for one Gray insider, Reuben Charles.
Stewart reported that media reports of financial business problems now make it unlikely that Charles will be in the Gray administration, particularly as chief of staff. Charles is well-liked by many Gray insiders who valued his hard work as a fundraiser during the campaign. But his financial baggage, some say, is just too big to fit through the front door of the mayor’s office.
• The inauguration.
Gray will be sworn in on Jan. 2. Unfortunately, that’s a Sunday when the Redskins will be playing their final regular-season game at home against the New York Giants. And it’s New Year’s weekend.
But Gray has decided to hold his inaugural events on that Sunday anyway. He could have opted for a formal swearing-in at noon on Sunday, as required by law, and a full day of inaugural events on Monday. But the clock ran out on that idea.
