Not Safe

Dear Districtians:

I’ve moved my main posting below, because it is another take on property taxes and a reply to other posters. Other than that, all that I have to say is that after thirty-four years in this town I’m still surprised both by how cold the winters can get and by how cold the government can get. For some explosive charges about that, see the lawsuit filed last month by Alfred Winder, who was fired by the District of Columbia Public Schools as its general manager of transportation, at http://www.dcpswatch.com/special/031223.htm.

Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com

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3:30 in the Afternoon
Larry Seftor, Larry underscore Seftor at compuserve dot com

When I learned that a cook at the Booeymonger Deli was shot I thought that he had run into foul play somewhere distant from the Friendship Heights eatery. And when I learned that the cook had been shot on Jenifer Street, close to Booeymonger, I thought that because of the restaurant’s late hours that he had been shot in the early hours of the morning. As it turns out, however, he was shot at 3:30 in the afternoon, in upscale, busy, commercial Friendship Heights, far, far away from the "bad" parts of DC, and very close to my old house.

Those of us who live in Northwest think of crime as something that happens far from us. As it turns out, danger is all around and the police are nowhere to be found. In the early 90s I used to see police cars patrol my neighborhood in Friendship Heights. But they stopped. The shooters of that poor cook must have felt safe in the fact that there was no ongoing police presence in the Friendship Heights area. They didn’t have to look over their shoulders because the police are just not around. What they didn’t know, but what would have comforted them further, is the fact that the police do not come when you call. Last September I had to request police help and it took four calls and forty minutes for a first response.

Whether you live, work, or just travel through DC, you are not safe.

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Forty Percent and a Mule
Ed Dixon, Georgetown Reservoir, jedxn@erols.com

Following the emancipation of African Americans in the South, politicians promoted the plan to provide forty acres and a mule to the former victims of slavery to assist in their economic recovery. However, the plan fell apart as reconstruction’s resources went to healing the wounds suffered by the country’s stubborn ruling classes rather than addressing the past sins and deprivations of slavery. Many of those refugees moved to DC in search of that recovery. Today, as some District’s politicians rattle on about a 40 percent increase to the public schools budget, many are wondering where those resources went. With six months of political finagling ahead for the schools, the answer as to whether or not the city can shoulder the burden of an adequate public education lies in the stubbornness of the city’s ruling class.

Both the Mayor and the Chair of the Education Committee have bragged about the amount the city has appropriated to the public schools. However, based on analysis the Office of the Chief Financial Officer provided to DC Watch (http://www.dcpswatch.com/dcps/030930.htm), it’s hard to see when or over what period from FY 1999 to 2004 that 40 percent occurred. Last spring, the Mayor was quoted in the Washington Times as saying he was tired of “shoveling” money into the schools. But there is little evidence the city has historically made great strides in adequately funding the schools. Based on data from the Department of Education, revenues for K-12 in DC grew considerably slower than the spending on K-12 nationally between FY1991 and FY2000 (http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d02/tables/PDF/table161.pdf). Arguably, while DC’s public schools saw a 6 percent drop in student enrollment, DC’s spending appropriately dropped 6 points behind the 26 point increase in the Consumer Price Index from 1991 to 2000. However, nationally, while enrollments increased only 13 percent, spending increased at 60 percent, or more than double the rate of the CPI from 1991 to 2000. Clearly, states were "shoveling" a lot more into their schools than DC.

But in 2000, with the Control Board in remission, the Mayor had to do something with the recently unfettered school system. In collusion with the business community, the Mayor remade the Board of Education and enticed Dr. Vance out of retirement to head the schools. A hefty teachers’ contract was drawn up. A Master Facilities Plan for the schools was created. There was hope in remaking the school system. But over time, with an income tax cut, a property tax cap, and many private schools having gotten public financing to expand, the moneyed interests in the city quickly became satisfied with the status quo. The mule got stubborn. The Federal City Council commissioned the McKinsey Report in 2002 delegating the “problem” of the schools to the Federal government (http://www.economicclub.org/Pages/archive/McKinsey.htm). The Chamber of Commerce Public Policy Agenda for 2003 emphasized that public education in the city must accommodate for the economic potential of real estate and produce a “cost effective workforce” in the city (http://www.dcchamber.org/site/docs/Public%20Policy/2003%20Public%20Policy%20Agenda.pdf). Moreover, other projects like baseball stadiums and luxury hotels have taken precedence over schools. With reelection, many politicians abandoned the promised teacher pay raise until recently forced to act by public opinion. With the accumulation of significant legal fees, the Mayor has become even more beholden to the city’s stubborn moneyed interests for survival. Ironically, part of the Freedman’s Bureau mission was to help build schools, and some were built, but the Bureau’s work was left unfinished. Let’s see what Williams and Chavous can muster.

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The Transportation Security Agency
Ann Van Aken, vanaken1@verizon.net

What a fiasco the Transportation Security Agency is! The TSA spends millions of dollars on putting up security trainees at resort hotels and has no reasonable explanation for the costs. A person I know recently reported to the Ramada Plaza Hotel (a Gold-Key resort) at JFK Airport for a week-long training session. One of the problems this person found was that because the training was during the week that included New Year’s Day and the instructors decided they wanted the day off, the training sessions were speeded up to become ten-and-a-half-hour days with two five-minute breaks and a half hour for lunch, in order to make up the time missed on New Year’s Day. This unauthorized grueling schedule makes me think twice: if the screener of your suitcase at National Airport or Dulles or BWI was in this class, what will be missed in the suitcase of the person behind you because the screener’s training was rushed?

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If You Have Nothing Better to Do
Leonard Sullivan, Jr., lsnarpac@bellatlantic.net

Perhaps I’m the only one that hasn’t been there, but it’s really worth a few minutes to go to http://www.nasa.gov and take a look at some of the pictures coming back 124 million miles in color in perfect focus from Mars from both rovers, and put up for the world to see at no cost! Good for the techie’s soul! Wow!

[This subject of this posting is about as far from local life in our city as it gets, but I’m stretching the rule because I share the sense of wonder. -- Gary Imhoff]

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Property Taxes and Reverse Mortgages
Harold Goldstein, mdbiker@goldray.com

Reverse mortgages are not for everyone. First of all there is an age requirement that, I wager, would eliminate most of the readers of this list. There are significant costs associated with reverse mortgages and one must be sure that one’s long-term residence plans, one’s planned estate approach, etc., are amenable to the reverse mortgage approach.

In this day of low interest rates it is probable that more people who need cash out will be better served by a line of credit on the house.

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Property Tax Cap
Zinnia, cmszinnia@earthlink.net

We all owe a debt of gratitude to Councilmen Catania and Evans for fighting so hard to make a reasonable cap on property tax increases. They were backing a 10 percent cap but others were arguing for a 20 percent. The compromise is closer to 10 than 20. The real reason we should be grateful to the Councilmen is that they had virtually no community support. I went to both hearings. The first had about thirty people testifying and the second there were only twelve of us.

The lack of community support is truly astounding to me. Is everyone else out there living without a budget constraint?

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Labeling Is Often Misleading
Connie Ridgway, kaniru at aol dot com

I find it amusing that Gary Imhoff uses the term “the high tax faction” to describe those who sought to change the 10 percent property tax cap proposal to make it more equitable. The 10 percent cap proposal sought to give relief to the wealthiest, the people who have the most expensive homes. (And, actually, not even all the wealthiest -- many already got hit hard with high tax increases in the previous two years, which the 10 percent cap did not address). The "high tax faction" proposal would have given the same amount of tax relief, but spread among all DC homeowners, not just those with expensive homes. As it was, each faction got a little less relief than they wanted, but all homeowners will benefit some.

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Property Tax Relief
Ed Lazere, DC Fiscal Policy Institute, lazere@dcfpi.org

The issue of property tax relief has been settled with the Council’s adoption of a 12 percent cap on yearly increases in homeowners’ bills and an increase in the homestead deduction from $30,000 to $38,000. It is time to move on, no doubt, but I would like to make one final comment. The debate over tax relief was split among those who supported a 10 percent cap and those supporting an alternative pushed by Phil Mendelson to set a 20 percent cap and increase the homestead deduction by $20,000. themail described the latter group — which included my organization — as “high tax advocates.”

That is not a fair characterization, because the two proposals would have provided the same amount of tax relief. The debate was not over tax relief versus “high taxes.” It was over how to provide tax relief. My organization conducted an analysis of the 10 percent cap, and we found that over half of the benefits would go to owners of homes worth $500,000 or more and that 60 percent would go to Wards 2 and 3. (Find it at http://www.dcfpi.org). Less than eight percent would go to Wards 5, 7, and 8 combined. This suggested that a 10 percent cap would do little to help low-income homeowners — the group most likely to face real hardship from property taxes, even if their tax bills are not rising the fastest in the city.

The Mendelson proposal would have provided relief more broadly, primarily by shifting more relief to lower-income wards. It’s important to note that the Mendelson proposal would have provided the same total amount of relief to many gentrifying areas — such as Ward 1 — as the 10 percent cap. The notion that a 10 percent cap was the only way to protect low-income homeowners in gentrifying areas simply was not true. Finally, my group expressed concerned about whether tax relief was affordable. Just a year ago, DC faced a budget hole of $323 million due primarily to plummeting income tax collections, which forced the city to make $200 million in service cuts and $100 million in tax increases. Despite recent reports in the press, the District is not facing a surplus this year or next. Property tax relief will limit the ability of DC to support services we all care about — such as education, health care, public safety, and libraries. My group’s focus on the affordability of tax relief should not be confused as blind support for “high taxes.”

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High Tax Advocates
Gary Imhoff, themail@dcwatch.com

High tax advocates disguise the true cost of their plan to increase property taxes when they calculate comparative figures for the first year, and the first year only. The property tax that you owe depends on the property assessment, the property tax class, the property tax rate, for owner-occupants the amount of the homeowner deduction, and now the new element of a cap on the amount of annual increase on taxes owed. It is true that for owner-occupants the total dollar amount of the property tax relief advocated by the DC Fiscal Policy Institute and Councilmember Mendelson would be about the same as that advocated by Councilmembers Evans and Catania in the first year. But in the second year and all following years, the difference between the two plans would depend on what happens to property values. If property values in DC fell, the DCFPI-Mendelson plan would actually be better for taxpayers, and if values remained steady the two plans would continue to offer the same amount of relief. But if property values rise in the future as they have in the past — and that’s the way to bet —- the DCFPI-Mendelson plan would result in much higher taxes, and be much more costly for taxpayers. The one-time rise in the homeowner deduction would remain the same in the out years, but the higher cap on taxes would allow much more rapid escalation. With a 25 percent cap on property taxes, your property taxes could double, roughly, every three years; with a 20 percent cap they could more than double in four years. The 12 percent cap that the city council agreed upon will allow your property taxes to double every six years, and the proposed 10 percent cap would have allowed doubled property taxes in about seven and a half years. The actual rate of increase will depend, obviously, on the rate at which property assessments rise.

The other property tax argument was over “fairness,” and the two sides proposed competing definitions of fairness. Catania and Evans argued that it was “fair” to give tax relief to those people whose assessments had skyrocketed, and who were being required to pay higher taxes, so they proposed lowering the cap on tax increases. DCFPI and Mendelson argued that "fairness" required that low-income homeowners receive more tax relief, whether or not their property taxes and assessments had risen, so they proposed raising the homeowner deduction instead. (DCFPI and Mendelson also argued that some wards, which have not yet had their triennial reassessments, would not benefit as much as others from a tax cap, but those wards will benefit when they are reassessed this year.) An argument can be made for either side, but the DCFPI-Mendelson plan has no monopoly on the virtue of “fairness.”

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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS

Pretrial Rally, January 27
Karen Szulgit, thirdpartygirl@juno.com

There will be a rally at 8 a.m. in front of DC Superior Court, 500 Indiana Avenue, NW, on Tuesday, January 27, to show support for the activists standing trial.DC Democracy activists from the B.A.D. Day Coalition will stand trial in DC Superior Court on that day for their arrest on October 1, 2003. The arrests came after the activists, wearing full colonial/plantation attire, attempted to petition House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert’s (R-Ill.) office on budget autonomy and statehood for DC. The activists requested that Speaker Hastert, the most powerful member of the US House of Representatives, bring H.R. 2472, “The District of Columbia Budget Autonomy Act of 2003,” to the floor for a vote. They are charged with “"unlawful entry” and each face up to six months in jail.

The arrests followed a day of protest designed to address the lack of budget autonomy, statehood. and democracy in DC. In the early afternoon, speakers including event organizers and the DC “Shadow“ Congressional delegation addressed hundreds of people at a B.A.D. Day rally near the Capitol South Metro Stop. Following the rally, a group of activists delivered thousands of signatures on petitions urging the passage of H.R. 2472 to the sponsors: Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC). The activists standing trial are: Adam Eidinger (DC Statehood Green Party), Anise Jenkins (Stand Up for Democracy in DC Coalition), Zoe Mitchell (DCSGP), Karen A. Szulgit (Stand Up), Jill Blankespoor (DCSGP), Bill Mosley (Stand Up), and David Barrows (DCSGP). All will represent themselves as Defendants pro se.

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Evening at the Embassy of Israel, February 5
Michael Karlan, events@dcyoungpro.com

On Thursday, February 5, the DC Society of Young Professionals is hosting an evening at the Embassy of Israel, located at 3514 International Drive, NW, near the Van Ness Metro Station. This walk-around style event features a complimentary Israeli buffet, an open bar of Israeli wine, an Israeli musical presentation, a brief Israeli film, a diplomatic greeting, and the chance to mix and mingle with DC’s professional community. This event costs $60. For security purposes, all tickets must be purchased no later than 5 p.m., Thursday, January 29. Also, for Embassy security concerns, we will need the full name, place of birth, and date of birth of all attendees E-mailed to us at events@dcyoungpro.com no later than 5 p.m. Thursday, January 29. For more details about this event, or to learn about all the DCSYP events, please visit www.dcyoungpro.com, E-mail us at events@dcyoungpro.com, or call us at 686-6085.

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Washington Storytellers Theater Speak Easy, February 10
Brad Hills, bradhills@washingtonstorytellers.org

Washington Storytellers Theater presents Taking the Bull by the Horns: Stories About Getting Your Way, on Tuesday, February 10, 8 p.m., at HR-57, 1610 14th Street, NW, between Corcoran and Q Streets. $5 admission. Featuring: Wallace Boyd, Susan Gordon and Tom Stamp. Doors open at 7:30. Show up early to get your name on the open mic list. Listen to some of the area’s best storytellers and then get up on stage to tell us your story. Because no one else knows it.

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CLASSIFIEDS — HELP WANTED

Project Director, Minority Business Development Center
Vernard Gray, nsaqi@connectdc.com

The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) is launching a new Minority Business Development Center (MBDC) to serve entrepreneurs in the greater Washington, DC, region. We are currently searching for a Project Director to lead this new enterprise. Please submit all applications no later than January 30, 2004. MBDC will provide business consulting and advisory services to minority-owned businesses in the greater Washington, DC, region. The Center is being launched with support from the Department of Commerce’s Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) as a strategy to develop minority-owned businesses. In addition to the Department of Commerce’s support, key partnerships have been established with the Dingman Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Maryland, College Park and the DC Department of Employment Services. The Center will focus on rapid-growth or potentially rapid-growth firms, in order to have maximum impact on the economy through job creation. The Center will provide four primary services: delivering business consulting services to clients, facilitating access to capital through financing resources and procurement programs, brokering that identifies areas for partnerships and brings people, firms, and resources together, and advocating for increased minority business development in the greater Washington, DC, region. The first twelve months will be focused on launching the Center as well as providing direct service to entrepreneurs. NCRC is a nonprofit trade association that seeks to promote economic justice and to increase equal access to credit, capital, and financial services.

The Project Director’s major focus will be on providing business consulting services to minority entrepreneurs and will be a full-time employee of NCRC. Key responsibilities include: serve as the administrative head of the MBDC; recruit, train, and supervise staff, including Dingman Center Fellows, the VISTA Member, and the Senior Aide receptionist when they are on location at the MBDC’s DOES site; collaborate with the Dingman Center Liaison and the NCRC Liaison; report directly to NCRC’s Sr. VP of Training and Technical Assistance; work with the Assistant Director of Business Development to ensure that all reporting requirements for the MBDC are met; work with Dingman Center Fellows to complete the necessary intake of all new clients, including use of the MBDA Client Assessment Tool and the MBDA Portal; provide one-on-one consulting to minority entrepreneurs, with a goal of assisting 140-150 clients per year; work closely with the Dingman Center Liaison to target entrepreneurs who would benefit from the Dingman Center’s in-depth and high-value business planning services, and collaborate with other local technical assistance providers to serve entrepreneurs; plan at least one workshop per month, with a minimum of twelve workshops per year, which include at least one “How to Write a Business Plan” series and one “Loan Day” event, in which entrepreneurs would have an opportunity to network with and present their business plans to local lenders; actively execute the MBDC’s marketing and outreach plan to ensure that the MBDC is highly visible in the community; participate in networking events that will enhance the reputation of the MBDC and oversee the preparation of marketing materials; sit on the DC Department of Employment Services “Tenant Committee”; attend all training sessions required by the MBDA.

Qualifications: undergraduate degree in business administration or related field required; MBA, JD, or CPA preferred; five years’ supervisory and Project Management experience; ability to recruit, train, and supervise employees and volunteers in a team management environment; entrepreneurial, must be comfortable in a startup situation who can take a project from idea to execution; professional services experience preferred; knowledge of training techniques to foster entrepreneurial development; must be comfortable leading group training events for a range of minority-owned firms, including emerging and high-growth companies. Key areas of expertise include, strategic planning, financial management, negotiating contracts and procurement; excellent oral and written presentation skills; proficiency in Spanish or a major Asian language preferred; sensitivity to minority business issues; familiarity with the Washington, DC, business community desirable; marketing/Communications experience or community development background/interest desirable. NCRC is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer. Women, minorities, veterans, and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Please submit resume, cover letter, and writing sample, by fax or E-mail, by January 30, to Kathleen Kim Moore, National Community Reinvestment Coalition, 733 15th Street, NW, Suite 540, Washington, DC 20005. Fax 628-9800, E-mail: kmoore@ncrc.org.

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CLASSIFIEDS — WANTED

Digital Still Camera
Bryce A. Suderow, streetstories@juno.com 

I need a digital still camera. I'm willing to buy one, but I am also hoping that someone wants to donate one to me.

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