D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s budget proposal is earning condemnations from some sections of the city’s business community, as developers and property owners complain that her administration’s contemplated tax hikes will stifle future real estate deals.
The FY 2020 budget Bowser released last month relies on two tax increases, both of which have drawn some fire in recent weeks: one would raise the levy on mixed-use and commercial real estate transactions valued at $2 million or more, while the other would roll back the commercial property tax cut the D.C. Council approved last year.
Chiefly, those tax changes are designed to fund Bowser’s proposed investments in affordable housing initiatives, which the mayor has made a central piece of her budget as concerns about rent prices in the city grow louder. Yet the businesses most likely to bear the brunt of those tax hikes argue that there must be other methods to fund such programs, instead of levying higher taxes on an industry that’s already felt plenty of pain recently.
“We’re being asked to do our part when it comes to the environment, affordable housing, Metro, subsidizing the city’s gas and water infrastructure,” Kirsten Williams, vice president of government affairs for the Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington, said in an interview. “We’re committed to doing our part, but there has to be a balance.”