On May 7, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted in a Washington Business Journal article on reactions to Mayor Bowser’s proposed tax increases:
“Yesim Sayin Taylor, a close watcher of the budget process as the executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, believes that Bowser’s team is using affordable housing investments to obfuscate the true purpose of the tax increases.
In short, the council raised tax rates to prepare for the creation of Metro’s new dedicated funding stream, but the city didn’t need to dedicate it for that purpose until fiscal 2020. So the city spent it instead, and now the bill is coming due.
“All these revenue increases, they’re going to fill that gap,” Taylor said. “We’re told this is an ‘upside tax,’ where we’re asking developers and property owners to share in the upside of the good economy. But it’s not paying for housing, it’s paying for other stuff.”