[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 113 (Monday, July 29, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H8602]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              TAX LEGISLATION FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentlewoman from the District of Columbia [Ms. Norton] is 
recognized during morning business for 5 minutes.
  Ms. NORTON. Mr. Speaker, I have put in a unique remedy for a 
catastrophic financial crisis in the District of Columbia. Questions 
have been raised about it. I think I and the people I represent are due 
the courtesy of a moratorium on off-the-cuff conclusions about the bill 
until they are fully briefed.
  The reasons, of course, for my bill, for a tax cut for the District, 
lie in the unique disadvantages of the city and the unique remedy it 
will take to solve them.
  We lost more residents in the first half of the 1990's than we did in 
the entire 1980's. Perhaps we share that in common with other cities, 
but virtually nothing else. Uniquely, we have no way to recoup revenue 
when we lose people.
  Leon Panetta, a personal friend and a friend of the District, spoke 
on television yesterday about my bill. In virtually every respect he 
was way off the mark. For example, Leon said congresspeople would be 
able to get this tax cut. They do not pay D.C. income taxes. The law 
requires them to be citizens of their own States.
  Imagine the pain in my District when they heard opposition to a tax 
cut to the District because it would be unfair to other cities. I never 
would have put the tax cut bill in in the first place if we had a State 
like other cities. We are the only city in the United States which has 
State responsibilities and State costs, and no State. Seventy-five 
percent of the money that big cities get, they get from external 
sources, such as State aid.
  I do not oppose Mr. Panetta's notion that we ought to have some tax-
based remedy for other cities. I welcome it. I would be thrilled. But 
do not hang a bunch of unique responsibilities around our necks and 
then say when it comes to relief, the same relief must go to those who 
do not have those unique responsibilities.
  There are four reasons, briefly, why I have put this bill in. We are 
the only city required to pay for State, county, and municipal 
functions. That means that we pay for Medicaid. Thirty-seven States get 
a greater Federal contribution for Medicaid than the District of 
Columbia.
  We are the only city with no State to recycle income from wealthier 
areas. Detroit has Michigan, Mr. Panetta. New York City has New York 
State. We have nobody.
  We are the only city barred by Congress from a commuter tax, and 
commuters take two-thirds of the revenue out, use our services, and 
leave nothing, not one thin dime in tax revenue.
  Finally, my constituents were particularly pained because apparently 
no notice has been taken of the fact that we are second per capita in 
Federal income taxes, with no full voting representation in the House 
or the Senate. Four territories, which have the same delegate to 
Congress as the District has, have paid no, I repeat, no Federal income 
taxes.
  Yes, I have asked for a unique remedy, because there are unique 
responsibilities. If you want to enlarge that to include the other 
great cities of the United States, be my guest. It would be 
magnificent.
  Finally we would get an urban policy. The Control Board that Congress 
has set up is not reviving the economy of the District. It is in fact 
reviving the government of the District. But taxpayers are leaving at 
such a rate that your Capital of the United States is dissolving as I 
speak, and nobody, not the administration, and not soon enough the 
Congress, is stepping up to save it in time.

  It will be too late 3 years from now. If there is to be a tax cut, 
let it be now, so there be time for it to kick in. If not a tax cut, 
then I challenge Mr. Panetta and every Member of this body to come up 
with a remedy during this session.
  It is your Capital City. It may be my home as a fourth generation 
Washingtonian, but 200 years ago, you set up the Capital of the United 
States and you gave it special and peculiar disabilities. Are you going 
to let if go out of existence? Are you going to treat Washington, DC, 
less than England would treat London? Are you going to treat 
Washington, DC, less than France would treat Paris?
  Do not compare the District of Columbia to Detroit, New York, 
Atlanta, or San Francisco, unless you give the people I represent the 
same citizenship rights and the same aid that those cities get. This is 
your Capital. Treat it as your Capital. Do not leave us stranded, 
swinging in the breeze, by the neck.

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