Orange, who was sworn in this month after winning a special election April 26, is on the theater’s board of directors. He did not mention the affiliation on the dais, but he said in a subsequent interview that he did not see a conflict of interest because his board position is unpaid.
“I don’t think the city has been doing right by the theater,” he said. “Even right now, it’s facing some financial difficulties.”
The budget unanimously passed a voice vote, and Gray indicated in a letter sent to Brown on Wednesday morning that he would “look forward” to signing it. Gray wrote that he preferred the income tax increase because it has “received a full public vetting . . . while a tax on bonds has not.” But he said that he would not veto the budget proposal over its inclusion.
But several council members said after the vote that they would work to eliminate the bond tax, which is projected to raise $13.4 million, before a final vote on supporting legislation set for June 14. Although the District now stands alone in granting tax exemptions on public bonds issued outside its borders — Indiana recently ended a similar exemption — several council members said they feared that a new bond tax would be unfair to current bondholders and would disproportionately affect retirees.
Still, former mayor Anthony A. Williams applauded the council’s decision. “The District has made headway in reducing taxes over the years. We’re very proud of that,” he said. “But I don’t think we should be the only jurisdiction to offer this benefit.”
During Williams’s tenure, the city twice proposed ending the exemption. But the council never went through with it, due in part, he recalled, to warnings that residents would pack up and move. “I don’t buy that argument now,” he said.
“I don’t remember the grandma-grandpa argument,” he said, referring to concerns about retirees’ dependence on bonds.
Helen Modly, a Middleburg-based financial planner who has clients in the city, said that the broad exemption “always was kind of a nice thing for District residents.” But she said she understood why legislators looked to end it.
“If you had to come up with a tax increase in the District that really only affected the wealthy, I think they did a pretty good job,” she said, adding: “To say that this something that’s going to affect the elderly, no. It’s going to affect people in high tax brackets.”
Staff writer Nikita Stewart contributed to this report.
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