D.C. Council Advances Budget Proposal, Including Stadium Funds

The Council of the District of Columbia has yet to officially greenlight Mayor Muriel Bowser’s plan to bring the Washington Commanders football team back to the District, but the latest D.C. budget proposal includes funding for Bowser’s $1 billion stadium commitment.

Council Chair Phil Mendelsohn on Sunday revealed the latest version of the city’s FY 2026 budget, which retained Bowser’s initial proposal of providing hundreds of millions of dollars for new stadium infrastructure, parking garages, public transit upgrades and more, alongside the Commanders’ funding commitments. 

The D.C. Council moved the budget bill forward on Monday after an all-day legislative session, in which it also voted on two additions: to include funding for ranked-choice voting in D.C. and to strip away Bowser’s proposal to repeal Initiative 82 (which aims to gradually increase the tipped-worker minimum wage until it matches the city’s standard minimum wage). A final vote on the budget is expected July 28.

The budget bill does not, however, fully approve the complexified stadium relocation plan, which Bowser announced with Commanders’ owner Josh Harris in April. Mendelsohn indicated that a vote to OK the plan would happen after public hearings on July 29 and 30 as part of separate legislation, thwarting Bowser’s hope to have the deal approved by July 15. If that deadline passes without deal approval, the Commanders are free to start searching for other potential relocation options.

“[The retention of stadium funding] is not really significant, because without the terms of the deal, there is no deal,” Bowser said at a press event on Monday morning. “The council has already stripped out the terms related to the deal [as part of its budget vote], and the money without terms is kind of meaningless. … The only thing that would give me confidence is the approval of the deal. We have an exclusive agreement with the team that ends [July 15], and we need the deal done.”

When asked about talks with the Commanders for a potential deadline extension, Bowser was clear that “there is none.”

Bowser’s plan to pay for the District’s stadium obligations was unveiled in May, despite a swollen budget deficit for this fiscal year caused by federal budget drama in the spring. 

The main aspects of that plan include refinancing hundreds of millions in long-held city debt, along with nixing a $400 million plan to redevelop the District’s crumbling, 50-year-old jail. The plan also calls for funds from the city’s sports facilities tax, which it levies on businesses with over $5 million in annual gross receipts. 

The Commanders’ move back to the District, and the revitalization of the city’s 45,000-seat stadium husk and its surrounding area, has long been a priority for Bowser since she took office in 2015. Winning over the D.C. Council, however, is an uphill climb. Immediate reactions from the council members were mixed, with Mendelsohn and Councilmembers Brianne Nadeau and Charles Allen in particular voicing concerns about the project’s sticker price.

The stadium situation aside, D.C. leaders have another $400 million elephant in the room to contend with. Congress’ March budget bill omits language that would allow D.C. to spend its fiscal 2025 budget, relegating the city to its 2024 budget. Bowser’s plan to address the shortfall centers around program cuts, including removing more than 25,000 people from Medicaid and nixing soon-to-launch programs such as the city’s child tax credits. 

Nick Trombola can be reached at ntrombola@commercialobserver.com.