Kelly's Deficit Forecast: $1 Billion Over 2 Years; Mayor Urges Statehood as Answer to `Crisis'
D.C. Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly yesterday forecast a nearly $1 billion budget deficit for the District over the next two years, and urged residents to support her calls for D.C. statehood to give the city the tools to overcome "the worst financial crisis in our history."</br></br>Kelly, speaking on her monthly cable television program, attributed most of the deficit - more than double the D.C. Council's estimate - to the continued economic recession, which is driving up the city's costs and sapping its revenue, but she also blamed the District's legal inability to tax the income of suburban residents who work in the city.</br></br>"We cannot afford one more day of this colonial status and second-class citizenship," Kelly said. "We need statehood, and we need it now. The ability to determine our own economic course would probably mean not having this type of budget crisis."</br></br>Kelly said she has not decided how to close the projected budget gap, but would be examining all options, including higher taxes, changes in laws and "the complete elimination of some services and probable job loss."</br></br>Kelly's critics have charged that she has not done enough to rein in spending and reduce the size of the city's payroll of 47,000 workers.