Fenty-Gray TBD debate: They've agreed at least four times
Incumbent Mayor Adrian Fenty is fond of calling his opponent, D.C. Council Chairman Vince Gray, a critic who lacks a better vision for the city than the one Fenty has proposed over his term.
One of Fenty's main pieces of evidence for this claim is that Gray voted for all four of the mayor's budgets. The budget is the most important piece of legislation the council considers all year, the one where it puts its money where its mouth is. By voting for the mayor's budget, a councilmember is basically signaling he doesn't think much is wrong with the mayor's vision for the city over the next year.
Fenty has said this multiple times, and repeated it during today's debate on NewsTalk. Is it true?
Yep. As council chairman, Gray voted for all four of Fenty's budgets. He was a yes for fiscal year 2011, for fiscal year 2010, for fiscal year 2009 and for fiscal year 2008.
Gray tried to parry this claim during the debate by citing the limited time the council has to consider the budget before it has to go to Congress for approval. Still, his vote is his vote.
Mayor Adrian Fenty becomes the first person to earn an Honest Abe from The Facts Machine.
1 Comment
John Yelp
Kevin, I am a little stunned by this "fact checking." It suggests what was passed by the Council was Fenty's budget. In reality, the Council receives the Mayor's proposal, makes changes, and then votes to approve what it believes represents the policy priorities of the District. It's the power of the purse. The budget ultimately passed by the Council in each of the years you cite make dramatic changes to the budget as proposed by Mayor Fenty. For example, and as noted in the debate by Gray, the Mayor's budget proposal included somewhere in the neighborhood of $40 million for the Summer Youth Jobs Program, what the Council ultimately approved and voted on was a budget of $20 million for the program. Likewise, Mayor Fenty proposed only $1.8 million for the Access to Justice Program, the Council approved double that at $3.6 million. I am at a loss as to how you see the Chairman's vote as approving the Mayor's budget; by your analysis, even if the Council reversed every policy proposal of the Mayor's, a "yes" vote would be a vote for the Mayor. Further, that Chairman Gray and the Council voted to approve a $20 million budget for the summer jobs program does not mean that they approve of the Mayor's overspending of the program by over $7 million (effectively spending $27 million, or spending more than what is authorized under the law). I would be really interested to learn how you, or for that matter the Mayor, reconciles that. Thanks.
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