The District would raise taxes on sales, commercial property and ride-hailing services such as Lyft and Uber to increase funding for Metro under the 2019 budget Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) proposed Wednesday.
Bowser’s plan, which must be approved by the D.C. Council, spells out for the first time how the city would pay for the District’s $178.5 million share of a regional strategy to improve the transit system.
Her proposed $14.5 billion budget for the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1 increases per-pupil funding by 3.91 percent, a source of contention last year and higher than what some education advocates expected.
Bower’s spending plan also includes $100 million for a trust fund for affordable housing — as she has proposed annually since taking office — as well as $300 million in starting costs for a new hospital east of the Anacostia River and $860,000 for publicly financed campaigns approved by the council but initially opposed by Bowser.
The mayor presented the budget in a briefing with the D.C. Council, which will hold public hearings and vote on the spending plan before June. The first formal hearing is scheduled for Friday.