The DC Council is expected to meet next month, just weeks before the general election, to hear testimony on a bevy of taxes and other revenue-raising mechanisms, including a wealth tax, a business activity tax, a pied-à-terre tax, and legislation that would change the frequency of property tax payments while altering the criteria for determining market value. One thing that won’t likely be on the table at that invitation-only Oct. 16 public hearing is a proposal that would exempt District residents from federal taxes.

That latter concept has been embraced and is a major part of the issues platforms advocated by Kymone Freeman and Denise Rosado, the DC delegate nominees for the Statehood Green Party and the Republican Party, respectively. Their names will be on the ballot for the Nov. 3 general election along with that of at-large Councilmember Robert White, the Democratic Party nominee. Each is vying for the seat being vacated by Eleanor Holmes Norton, who, after 35 years of representing the District as essentially a non-voting member in the U.S. House of Representatives, has decided to retire at the end of her current term in December.

“DC should not be paying federal taxes without statehood. We pay more per capita than any other state,“ Freeman told me during an extensive interview via Zoom last week.

“It’s a message that is starting to resonate,” added Freeman, co-founder of We Act Radio, based in Ward 8. In 2024, he ran against Norton. Now with the popular pol out of the picture entirely, the Ward 5 resident is hoping he has a better chance of succeeding her.

Rosado called the no federal taxes proposal “fair. There is a precedent.” She noted that none of the U.S. territories — not the Virgin Islands, not Guam, and not Puerto Rico — pay taxes.

“Most of the money District residents pay is not even going to DC,” said Rosado, a lawyer by trade and a resident of Ward 4. Years ago, she was a member of the Democratic Party. That was before she spent a stint at the U.S.-Mexico border, intent on helping immigrants who were seeking asylum only to learn that a good many did not legally qualify and were simply looking for better living conditions. That was also before she decided that birthright citizenship was “another racket.”