Mayor Vincent Gray and the Washington D.C. Council are set to repay more than 20,000 District employees, including councilmembers, a combined $22 million bonus this year to make up for the four unpaid holidays they were forced to take last year to suppress budget pressures. D.C. Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown announced both he and Mayor Gray agree a big sum of the surprise budget surplus should go to repaying city employees, during his monthly press briefing.
Mayor Gray initially proposed the repayment plan two weeks ago, but the council decided not to take up the matter. On Tuesday, the council is expected to vote on the proposal as part of $64 million in budget revisions it plans to implement. Brown said, “This is the priority that was sent down in the mayor’s revised budget. Clearly, we would love to give money back to everybody, whether it was the (high) income people that got taxed…whether it was human services that were cut…I want to restore everything.” Brown continued and said, “Unfortunately, you can’t. The people who work every day in this city, that have been working hard and took their furlough day, deserve to get their money back and that is what is on the table now.”
