Council moves to pay down completion grants, restores departmental cuts tied to lapse savings

The Neighborhoods committee on March 2 approved a package of bills intended to reduce the backlog of approved completion grants and to restore a previously proposed 2% lapse on certain departmental line items.

Council Member Ron Salem said a $693,000 change included in bill 2026-0092 "completely cover[s] the Four Seasons hotel completion grant" that otherwise would not have been paid until FY26–27. Mr. Billip Peterson, representing council staff, told members the remaining completion-grant exposure sits at roughly $16.9 million in the FY26–27 budget before the bills under consideration and that, in total, the council is addressing about $47 million of previously approved but unfunded projects through prior and current actions.

Related measures (bills 2026-0100, 2026-0102 and 2026-0103) were amended and approved to clarify funding sources and require that unfunded completion grants be included in the proposed budget for the year they are expected to be paid — and to discourage funding those grants with debt in the same year. Auditors and the budget office described processes for tracking obligations: Angela Moyer of the Budget Office said she will use the most recent DIA schedules during the FY26–27 budget process "to move the money around if I need to" to ensure due completion grants are covered.

Committee members expressed support for paying down known obligations ahead of time to ease future budget pressure and asked for clearer coordination among the administration, DIA, OED and the council; the bills passed on roll-call votes (typically 7–0).