. @MayorBowser's daily press briefing is starting now. Stay tuned for updates, including the ever-important details on how badly the pandemic has hit the city's finances.
D.C. officials say there have been no positive coronavirus cases in the city's family homeless system. Families coming into shelter are screened before entering.
BREAK: D.C. is facing $721 million in cuts in its current $9 billion budget, and will have to trim next year's budget by an additional $773 million. The city has lost 56% of sales tax revenue (which is usually 18% of all D.C. revenue), and 93,000 jobs stand to be lost by July.
"We’re assuming this will be a slow recovery starting in the fall," says D.C. CFO Jeffrey DeWitt. "We’re assuming this is going to be a U-shaped recovery."
Some key slides from DeWitt’s presentation:
"This is a recession no matter how you look at it," says DeWitt. "By 2022, we’re back to 2019 levels," he adds on the two-year recovery.
"The recovery will probably be better than most places: the federal government is here, [and] don’t underestimate the resiliency of the restaurant industry and other entrepreneurs to come back," says DeWitt. "But it’s a hit."
"The recovery will probably be better than most places: the federal government is here, [and] don’t underestimate the resiliency of the restaurant industry and other entrepreneurs to come back," says DeWitt. "But it’s a hit."
"Our financial situation is strong enough that when we look at other cities and states, their pain is worse. It suggests we’ll get through this," says Mendelson.
DeWitt says that of the 40% of restaurants that closed down altogether, 20% may not ever open again. And hotels could have to wait between three and five years to get back to normal.
D.C. has gotten its roughly $500 million in direct federal aid, but the city has been told it can't be used for revenue replacement. (Neither can states, which are each getting $1.25 billion; D.C. was designated a territory, and thus shortchanged.)
Interesting last tidbit: DeWitt said his office would be stress-testing the new paid family leave program, which starts up this July. He said he would be testing it to see if the revenues raised so far to pay for it ($220 million or so) would be enough to pay out benefits.
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