Mayor Bowser Presents Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Proposal, A Fair Shot: Strategic Investments and Shared Sacrifice

Mayor Muriel Bowser delivered her Fiscal Year 2025 (FY25) Budget and Financial Plan, A Fair Shot: Strategic Investments and Shared Sacrifice, to the Council of the District of Columbia as part of the District’s annual budget process. The FY25 budget represents strategic investments and shared sacrifices to address a confluence of post-COVID factors and drive economic growth.

“Never bet against Washington, DC. We are a resilient city. We never give up. We know how to make a strong comeback. But our wins are also not accidental. We’re smart, creative, and strategic. That is the spirit of my fiscal 2025 budget. This is a smart budget, it’s a responsible budget, but most important, this is a budget that will keep DC the best city in the world,” said Mayor Bowser. “I know that by continuing to work together – by striking the right balance between investments and sacrifice and by prioritizing investments that will kick off more revenues for the District – we will get back to the economic growth levels that have fueled the renaissance of modern Washington.”  

The FY25 budget and financial plan is made up of $21 billion in operating funds and $11.8 billion in capital improvement funds. The post-COVID economic factors include: slower revenue growth; the end of federal stimulus funding; significantly higher operating costs, including an additional $200 million in WMATA funding; and the impacts of the remote work environment. The District’s budget is also unique because DC Government is required to have a balanced financial plan across both the current fiscal year and the upcoming four years of the financial plan. The result of these factors is a widening gap across the financial plan that requires prudent investments now to change the trajectory of our out-year revenue estimates. 

Mayor Bowser shared her guiding principles for creating the budget:

• Maintaining and enhancing core services and preserve investments that protect health and safety.
• Prioritizing programs with track records of success that advance equity.
• Resetting spending to align with resources for long-term fiscal stability and focus new spending on catalytic investments, with a focus on public safety, education, and Downtown.

Downtown
Prior Investments We’re Maintaining

• $5 million for DMPED’s Vitality Fund, which provides grants to businesses in high-growth sectors like technology and life sciences to encourage them to locate in or remain Downtown
• $50 million in incentives for building owners to convert underutilized Downtown office space into housing for DC residents
• $68 million for major streetscape initiatives, including the I Street Greenway, a new green boulevard connecting Farragut Square and McPherson Square; the Dupont Crown Park deck over of Connecticut Avenue north of Dupont Circle; and completion of the Pennsylvania Avenue NW streetscape between 17th Street and Washington Circle

New Investments for FY 2025

• $515 million for the Chinatown Revitalization Fund to support sports arena renovations, streetscape improvements, public space activations, and/or expanded green space
• $64 million to build additional permanent supportive housing and congregate shelter space on the site with the existing Federal City Shelter
• $32 million in federal tourism grants and marketing, supporting activities for families and workforce development for the hospitality and tourism industries
• $26 million to implement the Business and Entrepreneurship Support to Thrive (BEST) Act that will streamline business licensing
• $13 million to support a new program that will freeze in place property taxes for conversions of office buildings into new uses Downtown
• $5.25 million to support DC’s hosting of World Pride in 2025
• $5 million to create a new Downtown Arts Hub, a flexible, multi-use space for theatre, dance, music, and visual arts organizations
• $3 million for DMPED’s Festival Fund, to continue making it easier for organizations to host festivals and to support the attraction of art fairs and go-go music festivals Downtown
• $2.6 million to activate the Gallery Place Festival Plaza, Dupont Crown Park, and I Street Greenway
• $2.5 million to support pop-up and short-term retail in vacant commercial spaces
• $1 million to establish a comprehensive transportation vision for Downtown
• $564,000 to host more cultural events and programs at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library and serve more residents and tourists in Downtown DC
• $500,000 for new planning initiatives to identify public space improvements to the Penn West and Downtown West/Golden Triangle neighborhoods in Downtown
• $300,000 for ongoing operation of the new Chinatown Safe Commercial Corridor Hub providing added public safety and human services agency presence
• $300,000 to support the installation of murals that celebrate the history and culture of the Gallery Place/Chinatown neighborhood

Full highlights of investments and initiatives in Mayor Bowser’s FY25 budget proposal can be found here.