B4 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.TUESDAY, MAY 24 , 2022
BY LAURA VOZZELLArichmond — State legislators
got word Monday that they
should return to the Capitol on
June 1 to vote on a proposed
two-year state budget, even
though final details on the spend-
ing plan were still being ham-
mered out.
Money committee leaders plan
to meet Wednesday to iron out
the last differences in rival House
and Senate bills, which were $3
billion apart in March when the
General Assembly gave up on
reconciling them in its regular
session and kicked the legislation
into a special session.
“Virginians are ready for the
General Assembly to come to-
gether on the budget and deliver
much-needed tax relief and in-
vestments in education, law en-
forcement, and behavioral health
for Virginians,” Gov. Glenn
Youngkin (R) said in a written
statement Monday. “I look for-
ward to reviewing their budget
proposal.”
Legislators launched the spe-
cial session in April on his orders
but promptly went home because
there was no compromise to vote
on. That is still the case; however,
budget negotiators were confi-
dent that they would have a deal
before the two chambers gavel in
next week.
“Please adjust your schedules
and plan accordingly to be here
in Richmond next week for this
important work to resume,”
House Clerk G. Paul Nardo wrote
in a letter to delegates and House
staff members. Senate Clerk Su-
san Clarke Schaar also confirmed
the June 1 return.It is not unusual for budget
negotiations to go into overtime.
The state needs a spending plan
in place by the start of its new
fiscal year July 1 to avoid a
government shutdown, a pros-
pect that neither side thinks is
even a remote possibility.
The main obstacle to a budget
agreement has been the sweep-
ing tax cuts sought by Youngkin
and the Republican-led House,
which have included doubling
the state standard deduction,
ending the 2.5 percent statewide
tax on groceries, exempting
$40,000 of military pensions,
suspending an increase in the
gasoline tax for one year and
imposing a gas-tax holiday of
three months.
The Senate, under slim Demo-
cratic control, has wanted to
examine the entire tax system fora year before adjusting the stan-
dard deduction to make sure
future revenue would not be un-
duly harmed, take out the state’s
1.5 percent portion of the grocery
tax while still allowing localities
to levy the remaining 1 percent,
and keep the gas tax the same,
arguing that oil companies are
unlikely to pass the savings on to
consumers.
Negotiators have said for some
time that they were close to a
deal, but they have given no
public indication of whether they
were leaning toward more tax
cuts, more spending or somehow
splitting the difference.
“We are close,” Senate Finance
and Appropriations Committee
Chairwoman Janet D. Howell (D-
Fairfax) said Monday. House Ap-
propriations Committee Chair-
man Barry D. Knight (R-Virginia
Beach) declined to comment.
The spending plans must be
available online for legislators to
review no later than 10 a.m. May
30 to adhere to General Assembly
rules requiring that legislators
have 24 hours to review budget
bills before voting.VIRGINIA
Legislators to vote on state budget deal next week
MARVIN JOSEPH/THE WASHINGTON POST
If confirmed by the D.C. Council, Glen Lee would oversee the city’s
finances a s the chief financial officer, an independent office that
was created in 1995 through federal legislation.BY MICHAEL BRICE-SADDLERD.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser
on Monday announced her nomi-
nee for the city’s new chief finan-
cial officer: Glen Lee, who has
spent nearly 30 years in various
roles for the city of Seattle, most
recently as its finance director.
If confirmed, Lee would be-
come the fifth person to occupy
the independent office, which
was created in 1995 through fed-
eral legislation that also estab-
lished a financial control board to
help oversee the District’s fi -
nances. The CFO carries a range
of responsibilities, including
making revenue projections and
operating the city’s financial
management system.
At a news conference Monday,
Bowser (D) touted advancements
in the District’s financial stability
in recent years — such as reach-
ing a Triple-A bond rating and
building up the city’s 60-day cash
reserve fund — successes she has
attributed to the city’s former
CFO, Jeffrey DeWitt, who re-
signed in March 2021 for a leader-
ship role at the University of
Kansas after a near-seven-year
run. After DeWitt’s resignation,
Bowser picked Fitzroy Lee, the
city’s deputy CFO and chief econ-
omist, to serve out the remainder
of DeWitt’s five-year term, which
will end June 30.
Now, she’ll ask Glen Lee, 61, to
help the city navigate the eco-
nomic travails of the pandemic.
She pointed to his experience and
said that in addition to revenue
estimates, he’ll be asked to take
on duties that Bowser previously
asked DeWitt to take on during
his tenure, including a focus on
finances for M etro as well as
inventorying the city’s public
housing stock as part of the D.C.
Housing Authority’s plan to reha-
bilitate them.
“I view the District of Colum-
bia chief financial officer as the
pinnacle of the finance profession
here in the United States,” Lee
said. He added that D.C. is an
“exciting city with exciting chal-
lenges.”
Lee will operate a bigger budg-
et in the District: Seattle’s mayor
in December signed a $7 billion
budget for 2022; on Tuesday, theD.C. Council will take the second
of two votes on a $19.5 billion
budget for fiscal 2023.
Asked if he was ready to move
on from Seattle and take on Dis-
trict functions that are akin to
operating a state budget, Lee cit-
ed his experience: He began his
public finance career in the Cali-
fornia legislative analyst’s office
before moving to Seattle, where
he first worked as a revenue
forecaster before spending 11
years as assistant finance direc-
tor. He has been Seattle’s head
finance director since 2010.
“I have a knowledge that pro-
vides the appropriate back-
ground to handle the broader
responsibilities,” he said.Bowser was also asked Monday
about the city’s sole-sourced
sports gambling contract, which
has been scrutinized for under-
performing since DeWitt pushed
for the D.C. Council to approve it
in 2019. Bowser said she spoke
with Lee “at length” about sports
gambling, which is under the
purview of the CFO via the D.C.
Lottery.
“I’m concerned generally about
the D.C. Lottery, and sports gam-
bling is a part of that,” Bowser
said. “I think we’re all going to
take a long hard look at what’s
happening next.”
Should the nomination be con-
firmed by the council, Bowser
said Fitzroy Lee will return to his
previous roles. D.C. Council
Chairman Phil Mendelson (D-At
Large) said at the news confer-
ence that he expects the confir-
mation process for Glen Lee to
wrap up before the end of June.THE DISTRICTBowser nominatesS eattle f inance directorto be c ity’s new CFO“I view the Districtof Columbia chieffinancial officer as thepinnacle of the financeprofession here in theUnited States.”
Glen Lee, nominee to be D.C.’s
new chief financial officerare on it, as well as President
Biden, Vice President Harris,
Mark Zuckerberg and U.S.
District Judge Tanya Chutkan,
who presided over the trial of
convicted spy Maria Butina.
Cheh’s bill struck a nerve,
clearly.
She said she was moved when
a Russian told her that every
time a memorial — a bouquet, a
candle, a picture — showed up
on the Moscow bridge where
Nemtsov was gunned down in
2015, “government officials
would sweep it away.” It’s
especially sensitive right now,
because Nemtsov was about to
release a report on Russian
soldiers in Ukraine when he was
killed, she said.
So renaming that part of
Wisconsin Avenue right in
eyesight of the Russians became
important. “And nobody would
sweep it away,” she said.
The Senate Appropriations
Committee aimed for something
similar in 1984, naming the part
of 16th Street in front of the
Soviet Union’s embassy for
dissident scientist Andrei
Sakharov.
“Every piece of mail the
Soviets get will remind them
that we want to know what has
happened to the Sakharovs,”
Sen. Alfonse M. D’Amato (R-
N.Y.) said when that bill was
proposed.
That’s the daily reminder we
also hope will come to 601 New
Hampshire Ave. NW.
“Jamal Khashoggi Way” is the
new name that D.C. Council Bill
24-22 gave the street in front of
the Saudi Embassy.
In December, the D.C. Council
voted to rename that block for
Khashoggi, a Washington Post
contributing columnist.
The embassy is a building
decorated with Saudi national
symbols of palms and crossed
scimitars, where men in
DVORAK FROM B1
traditional ghutras are
constantly going in. They go out,
too, though. That’s something
Khashoggi never did, after he
was lured into the Saudi
Consulate in Turkey four years
ago, then strangled and
dismembered.
Will diplomats and visitorsavert their eyes when the street
sign with Khashoggi’s name is
mounted right in front of the
building? Will D.C. Council
Chair Phil Mendelson be
banned from Saudi Arabia?
No one could avert their eyes
two years ago when D.C. Mayor
Muriel E. Bowser ordered a
“Black Lives Matter” street
mural, so huge it could be seen
from space, painted on the
streets in front of President
Donald Trump’s White House.
“As Washingtonians, we
simply all want to be here
together in peace to
demonstrate that in America,
you can peacefully assemble,
you can bring grievances to your
government, and you can
demand change,” Bowser said
then, as a “Black Lives MatterPlaza” sign was bolted on a
lamppost.
Some Black Lives Matter
activists waved the mural away
as “performative,” after Bowser
lashed out against Trump’s
threat to take over the city
during that summer’s protests.
But Trump rage-tweeted about
the signs. It got to him.
And every time he struck
back at Bowser, Trump
reminded Americans of the
Black Lives Matter movement.
That’s how these gestures
work.
“The last place I want to go is
Russia. I wouldn’t spend a
penny or a ruble there,” Cheh
said. “But here, by banning me,
they are reminding people now
about Boris Nemtsov. To which I
say, hallelujah.”PETULA DVORAK
There’s real power in shaming by renaming
JAHI CHIKWENDIU/THE WASHINGTON POST
A portrait of Boris Nemtsov, a Russian dissident who was assassinated i n 2015, sits across from the
Russian Embassy in February 2 018, shortly before the D.C. Council named the street for him.“By banning me, theyare reminding peoplenow about BorisNemtsov.”
Mary M. Cheh, D.C. Council member,
on Russia’s move to bar her
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