D.C. expects $1.2B less in FY 2011 revenue - Dayton Business Journal:

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Compared to estimates from this timelast D.C. expects $1.2 billion less in fiscal 2011 revenu eand $1.3 billion less in fiscal 2012 leaving a $211.5 million 2011 shortfall and a $223.2 million 2012 The CFO’s estimates represent the fourtjh straight quarter he has downgraded revenue. He project a slow recovery fromthe recession. Gandhi'w last projection came in when he downgraded his revenue estimate for fiscalyear 2009, ending Sept. 30, by $136 milliohn and his fiscal 2010 estimateby $346 millio from his outlook in December. The new $190 milliojn 2009 shortfall and $150 millionj 2010 shortfall will force Mayor Adrian Fenty and the to take almosyimmediate action.
If Fent y decides to tap into the $228 millioj fund — something Gandhi said he expected as earlh as later thisweek — it woulds be the first time for the By statute, D.C. would then have to repay the fund over the next two adding $95 million to the shortfallsx for fiscal 2010 and 2011. But Gandhio said there was littld alternative. Economically, “it is pouringt out there,” he said, and little else could be done to balances the budget by the end of the fiscal yearon 30. The estimates also mean that D.C. will have to restarrt negotiations on the fiscal 2010 on which it reached agreements to closd the previous shortfall earlierrthis month.
Gandhi said he expected a new proposap fromthe mayor. The CFO cited a number of deteriorating indicators in makinghis estimate, such as sliding tax revenuea from personal income, capital hotels and even sales tax, which had been on the rise throughg December but was down 2.7 percent through May. The city’ds unemployment rate was 10.7 percent in May, up from 5.8 percenf in December. Property tax reductions accountefor $122.6 million, or almost two-thirds, of the new $190 milliobn 2009 gap. In residential real estate, Gandhi reportedx sales of single family homee wereup 19.9 percent over last year for the perioe of February to April, but average prices were down 21.6 percent.
Condos were the opposite, postinfg sales down 4.6 percent from last year but priceawere 17.6 percent higher. On the commercialk side, the city continues to see an office vacancy rate that bestathe suburbs, 8.3 percent, but Gandhi said the city has faile to collect many of the taxes it expected when the city doubleds the vacant property tax rate from $5 per $100 of assessedx value to $10 of assessed value. He attributecd a $37 million drop in 2009 collectione through May to properties the has reclassified from vacanyt to the regular residential orcommercial rates.
Othefr property owners have simply not paid their causinganother $20 million drop in