After hours of debating a slew of last-minute amendments, the D.C. Council voted to approve an almost $22 billion budget for 2026.
After hours of debating a slew of last-minute amendments, the D.C. Council voted to approve an almost $22 billion budget for 2026.
Friday was the last day of debate ahead of the second and final vote on the 2026 budget, and multiple amendments were filed during the legislative hearing.
Council Chair Phil Mendelson called seeing many of the last-minute additions “a little wacky.”
One amendment that was approved unanimously was one that most council members didn’t want to vote on. It cut an additional $30 million from a variety of programs the council had originally budgeted for.
Mendelson, who introduced the measure, said he introduced it “under duress,” from the D.C. chief financial officer after the CFO said he will not certify the budget if it isn’t balanced with a needed $244 million pad of unspent funds.
Council member Janeese Lewis George was among the council members who expressed her anger over the cut.
“I think we should all be angry about what we’re being forced to do by a non-elected administrator who lacks the authority to appropriate funds,” she said.
Initiative 83
A lot of the introduced amendments focused on whether Initiative 83 would be fully or partially funded. The initiative was approved by voters last year and called for ranked choice voting and open primaries in D.C.
Ahead of the first vote, the council agreed to fund half the measure, allowing for ranked choice voting but not open primaries. The system allows voters to rank more than one candidate on a ballot.
At-large Council member Anita Bonds and Ward 5 Council member Zachary Parker were among those who proposed amendments that opted for studying how to set up ranked choice voting before choosing to pay to implement it.
Ward 2 Council member Brooke Pinto introduced one amendment that would have fully funded Initiative 83.
“Just two weeks ago, we implemented the first half of Initiative 83 with a supermajority of us. This amendment just seeks to implement the other half of ranked choice voting, as was passed by 73% of D.C. voters, to have semi-open primaries, to allow independents to vote in our primary system,” Pinto said.
However, the measure failed.
Initiative 82 and a child tax credit
Another major discussion was over an amendment that would partially bring back the tipped minimum wage.
First passed in 2022, Initiative 82 raised the minimum wage for tipped workers, and called for a full minimum wage for tipped workers by 2027.
Backlash from some restaurant owners led to increases as part of the initiative being frozen by the council.
Council members Christina Henderson and Charles Allen proposed a compromise to the measure which would up the minimum wage for tipped workers to 75% of the city’s standard minimum wage by 2034, through 2% increases from the current $10 an hour, every two years beginning in 2028.
Some in the audience were removed for their outbursts during this part of the discussion.
Council member Lewis George spoke out against the amendment, saying restaurants had time to prepare for the wage increase and the original initiative should continue.
Pinto spoke in support of the measure, saying the initiative as written is “unsustainable” for restaurants, especially small businesses.
“Let’s remember: Restaurants, for the most part, are small businesses,” Pinto said.
In the end, the amendment passed.
One Fair Wage, a group which led the charge for Initiative 82, said in a release that although the measure was kept, it remains “watered down” and goes against the resounding vote of D.C. residents.
The Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, which has pushed for a repeal or revamping of the measure, thanked the council in a statement for compromising to restore the initiative with changes that will provide “more clarity and a stronger foundation to plan for the future.”
There was also heated debate over an amendment from Council members Parker and Pinto that called for partially restoring funding for a child tax credit.
The credit would be funded by removing some money from a program that pays for legal assistance for those who cannot afford legal representation.
“Cutting access to justice is shameful,” Mendelson said.
The measure failed.
What else was added
Other changes to the budget include the addition of penalties for the D.C. mayor if she delays to deliver the council with her proposed budget in a timely manner.
This comes after the delayed budget proposal this year led to the final vote falling during a time when the council is normally on recess.
The mayor blamed the delay on the federal government’s created budget gap, after it refused to address a measure that kept D.C. from accessing tax revenue brought in from residents.
Also, the vote included approval of a supplemental budget for 2025, which accounts for needed changes to the budget to account for a Congress created budget hole that blocked DC from accessing tax revenues collected from residents.
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