On April 20, 2020, D.C. Policy Center’s Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted by the Washington Business Journal:
Hoffman is confident the council could structure the program stringently, building in provisions that ensure that a commercial tenant has to remain open and employ a certain number of District residents to score the relief. That, he said, also ensures landowners don’t get an abatement for an unfilled space. The program could also be similar to a mortgage relief measure the council passed earlier this month, ensuring any commercial property owner that earns a break on mortgage payments from a lender must pass some of those savings on to tenants.
Yesim Taylor, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, said this sort of tax relief has merit specifically because it is more broad-based, targeting an industry over specific businesses that would need to apply, for instance.
“This is, in some ways the simplest way to help businesses,” Taylor said.
Related: COVID-19 pandemic and the District of Columbia: What to expect? | D.C. Policy Center