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Montgomery County Council set to approve $7.6B budget with ‘unyielding commitment’ to education, public safety
May 20, 2025
By Chris Kain
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DC budget watchers can make their post-Memorial Day plans now: That’s the apparent timetable for Mayor Muriel Bowser‘s formal submission of her budget plan to the DC Council, which will kick off the 70-day clock for the legislature to review her proposals, hold public hearings and adopt a final budget.
At a closed-door meeting yesterday afternoon, Bowser, Chief Financial Officer Glen Lee and members of the DC Council discussed the status of the budget, which was originally due to legislators by April 2. That was later adjusted to May 15, with Council Chair Phil Mendelson faulting the mayor’s rationale for the delays as solely the result of uncertainty over House action to reverse the massive mid-year spending cuts in fiscal year 2025 otherwise mandated by Congress.
After the meeting, Mendelson told reporters that the finishing touches on the FY 2025 supplemental budget and FY 2026 proposed budget were in the works. Lee’s office will then begin the 10-day process of certifying that the full financial plan is balanced and prepare the documents for publication online and in a formal submission to the council.
Officials have said the formal submission is expected on May 27, directly after the Memorial Day weekend. That will likely mean a final council vote in early August — a timetable that councilmembers earlier this week said will stymie other legislative work that generally takes place in the lead-up to the council’s summer recess, which would otherwise begin July 15.
At the council’s Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday, several legislators urged Mendelson to seek an immediate meeting with Bowser and Lee in an attempt to end the weeks of uncertainty over the budget timetable — with Ward 6’s Charles Allen saying “I think we’re all frustrated” and Ward 2’s Brooke Pinto saying she hoped they could all “get back on the same page.”
After yesterday’s meeting, Mendelson told reporters: “It looks like the pressure that we put on the mayor is paying off, and that we will finally get the budget.”
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