The chair of the House committee that oversees local D.C. affairs is seeking to make it significantly harder for city lawmakers to raise taxes or fees.
A bill introduced Thursday by Rep. James Comer (R-Kentucky) would block the D.C. Council from amending its tax code or raising any city taxes or fees without explicit approval from Congress. The measure would upend the typical process for D.C. tax changes, which currently go into effect automatically after a waiting period unless Congress takes action to block them.
Under Comer’s bill, any new D.C. law that raises taxes or fees would require approval from both chambers of Congress within 60 days; without it, the law would be moot. He introduced the measure as D.C. lawmakers, faced with a sluggish local economy and mounting budget pressures, have said they may consider potential tax increases on businesses and wealthy residents next fiscal year — and as D.C.’s Democratic nominee for mayor, Janeese Lewis George, has advocated for a business activity tax targeting law firms and consulting groups that do not pay the city’s typical business taxes.
“Radical D.C. Democrats want to solve their spending problem by reaching deeper into taxpayers’ pockets and driving further on the path to socialism,” Comer said in a news release Thursday. “The Constitution gives Congress clear responsibility over the nation’s capital, and we must prevent the D.C. Council’s reckless fiscal policies from jeopardizing its future.”
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If the bill passes the GOP-controlled House, it would face an uphill battle in the Senate, where Republicans lack a filibuster-proof majority.
Still, the proposal affirms the continued congressional interest in intervening in local D.C. affairs, and is the latest in a long series of recent efforts by Republicans on the Hill to curtail or undermine D.C.’s limited self-government.
Other bills introduced in recent years include an effort to replace D.C.’s elected attorney general with a presidential appointee, and another that would add new mandatory minimum sentences to D.C.’s criminal code over the objections of the city’s elected lawmakers. Congress also in 2023 blocked a sweeping overhaul of criminal laws passed by the D.C. Council, and this year nearly blocked a move by the D.C. Council to divorce the city’s local tax code from President Donald Trump’s federal tax cuts.
D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson said he was concerned by the sweeping scope of the new Comer bill, which would also require congressional approval for any changes to Title 47 of the D.C. code — the section of law that houses many tax- and fee-related provisions.
“It would appear to freeze any ability to make any adjustment, even that which might be reform or reduction in fees or taxes,” Mendelson said.
He also said he is skeptical that Congress, which routinely struggles to confirm D.C. judges or tackle other local issues in a timely manner, would meet the bill’s 60-day deadline for approving D.C. tax changes, even for changes that federal lawmakers might support.
Mendelson has committed to holding a D.C. Council hearing on potential tax changes in the fall — a move he made after some city lawmakers expressed an interest in exploring tax hikes on the wealthy to fund programs that faced steep budget cuts this year.
City lawmakers were staring down a $1.1 billion budget gap as they began deliberations on the budget this spring, a situation that led many of the city’s left-leaning advocacy groups to demand that lawmakers raise taxes on the wealthy. In the end, the council opted not to go that route, after Mendelson identified hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue that the council used to avoid many of the social services cuts lawmakers most opposed.
Still, Mendelson recently acknowledged to NOTUS that tax hikes could be coming as soon as this year.
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