In one of her last months in office, Mayor Muriel Bowser has defiantly refused to sign the budget approved in June by the District Council.
Bowser characterized the budget as irresponsible, since it uses one-time funding to pay for some of the proposed programs. The absence of her signature does not block the bill’s passage, but it shows her disapproval.
Totaling almost $22 billion, the fiscal 2027 budget unanimously approved by the Council reversed many of the mayor’s proposed cuts. In a statement, Democratic mayoral nominee Janeese Lewis George called Bowser’s cuts “irresponsible,” saying that they placed the District on a “precarious path.” Lewis George emphasized that she did not want to implement cuts to child-care worker subsidies or paid family leave, as the mayor had proposed…