SerpApi.Org
Raising the specter of a socialist mayor, House Republicans want to limit D.C.'s power to set its own taxes, advancing a bill on Wednesday out of the Oversight Committee.
Why it matters: If successful, the move could amount to the biggest rollback of home rule since Congress seized control of the District's finances in the 1990s.
State of play: The bill would require Congress to approve any tax increase — or tax cut, for that matter — passed by the D.C. Council.
- The legislation applies to "fees," and has drawn support from DoorDash, which recently tried lobbying council members against a 20-cent food delivery fee. (Now, Free DC is asking residents to boycott DoorDash.)
- "We don't want to see more economic decline ... as a result of a socialist takeover of this city with more taxes," Oversight Chairman James Comer of Kentucky said, referring to D.C.'s likely next mayor, Janeese Lewis George.
Between the lines: Lewis George has floated a new tax on certain businesses — mainly affecting law firms and lobbying shops — to fund her promise to expand child care subsidies.
- And Congress' action comes just before the D.C. Council is set to discuss potential tax increases this fall, where progressives will revive a wealth tax debate.
Mayor Muriel Bowser, who's worked with Comer on the RFK Stadium legislation, urged Congress to stand down on the bill.
- It would turn the D.C. Council into an "advisory body for taxation," said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, and her Democratic colleagues said Congress has no business acting as a "super city council."
Reality check: If the bill passes the full House, it faces long odds in the Senate, where Republicans hold a slim majority and would need 60 votes to advance it.
