(Washington Examiner) — The D.C. Council approved a $5.8 billion operating budget Wednesday that did not include a proposal by Mayor Vincent Gray to raise the income tax rate on the wealthy. The unanimous vote on the budget was a big victory for Council Chairman Kwame Brown, who stitched together a budget proposal that backed up his campaign promise to not raise the income tax rate and found dollars for key human services programs the mayor had proposed to cut. Some of those programs, like one that helps low-income earners pay the rent, will have to wait until dollars become available through an expected jump in a revenue projection that comes out next month. Brown successfully held off an effort to bring back the mayor’s tax increase on households earning $200,000 or more when the measure was defeated in an 8-5 vote.
