By Elissa Silverman and Karlyn Barker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, May 10, 2006

The D.C. Council unanimously approved yesterday a budget of $5.06 billion that provides money to hire 100 additional police officers and boosts funds for public schools and affordable housing programs.

Council members vigorously sparred over several changes to the fiscal 2007 funding request submitted by Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D). Most of the debate focused on an increase in the city's deed recordation and transfer tax and a move to rein in spending at the Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Administration, an agency that serves some of the city's most vulnerable citizens.

The council approved a $104 million increase in school funding and $92 million more for human services programs.

"The council actions, particularly through the actions of our committees, carefully reviewed proposed expenditures to ensure that priority programs were properly funded," said council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D).

The budget, which requires congressional approval before it can take effect Oct. 1, is a 2 percent increase in local spending over last year. The total city budget, including federal funding, is $9 billion.

The council will hold a second and final vote on legislative language supporting the budget June 6.

At yesterday's meeting, affordable housing advocates, wearing bright red T-shirts, sat in the audience across from a group of developmentally challenged residents, who came with the Art and Drama Therapy Institute and sported yellow T-shirts and whimsical hats.

Council members agreed to increase the deed recordation and transfer tax for residential and commercial properties from 1.1 percent to 1.45 percent, with residential properties valued at $400,000 or less exempt from the increase. They allocated $7 million from the tax, which has been a key revenue source during the recent boom in the real estate market, to pay for 100 more police officers. The additional new revenue also went to fund affordable housing initiatives recommended by the city's housing task force.

Housing advocates objected to having $7 million diverted from their programs, but council members said public safety is a top priority for voters.

Eight of the 13 council members are seeking reelection or higher office this year, including three who are campaigning to replace Williams, who has decided not to run for a third term.

"If you come campaigning in Ward 1, the voters are going to say we want more police on the streets in our neighborhood," said council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1).

D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey welcomed the council's action yesterday, saying he could use the extra officers to bolster patrols and increase the number of detectives. "I'm thankful for that," Ramsey said. "It's a good move."

Not everyone agreed that more officers would make the city safer. "The challenge is not more police; it is better police," said council member Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3), whose amendment to use the $7 million primarily for housing assistance failed by a vote of 12 to 1.

"Just throwing money at the Metropolitan Police Department because that gives us an answer we give to the community doesn't solve any problems," Patterson said.

The city's dependence on the tax to fund legislative priorities caused concern, too. On Friday, D.C. Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi projected lower revenue from the tax because of a cooling off of the housing market, which prompted the council to bump the increase from 1.35 to 1.45 percent.

In another controversial decision, the council turned aside the mayor's plea to restore its nearly $15 million cut to the budget of the troubled mental retardation agency. The Council's Human Services Committee, chaired by Adrian M. Fenty (D-Ward 4), unanimously approved the cut last month amid complaints that the agency had overspent its budget and wasn't improving the quality of care for more than 2,000 people, many of whom live in group homes.

"It's time for the council of the District of Columbia to stop the insanity," said Fenty, who urged the council to sustain the cuts pending a review to see how the money is being spent. He asked: "Why should we pour money into a black hole when there's been no demonstrated improvement" in care?

In two letters to the council yesterday, Williams warned that without full funding, the agency would have to "dramatically reduce" the number of people served and eliminate all nonresidential services, such as day programs, case management and transportation.

But council member Carol Schwartz (R-At Large) and others said they did not believe services would be cut, particularly since the $61.5 million the council budgeted for next year amounts to a 10 percent increase in funding.

"Please don't worry about services being cut," she told families and service providers in the audience, some of whom held a protest rally earlier in the day. "Nobody is going to allow that to happen."

Williams, who is on a trade and cultural exchange mission in Africa, issued a statement after the vote reiterating his position.

Staff writer Del Quentin Wilber contributed to this report.