The D.C. Council Committee on Business and Economic Development voted on April 27 to approve a series of budget recommendations to the full Council that calls for cutting $1.5 million from a city program that has helped to support the city’s Capital Pride parade and festival.

The program in question, known as the Festival Fund or Special Event Relief Fund, has for many years exempted community-based organizations like the Capital Pride Alliance, from having to pay the costs of street closings and police and other public safety support services for such events.

The proposed cut for this program, if approved by the full D.C. Council, would be part of the city’s fiscal year 2024 budget.

Ryan Bos, executive director of Capital Pride Alliance, said elimination of the Festival Fund program could result in Capital Pride having to pay between $550,000 and $750,000 to hold the city’s popular Capital Pride Parade, Festival, Block Party, and other Pride events in 2024, when the elimination of the Festival Fund would take effect.

“This Fund is essential to supporting events that celebrate the culture of the District of Columbia and its communities, including events like the Capital Pride Celebration – particularly ahead of ensuring a successful World Pride in 2025,” according to a statement Capital Pride released to the Washington Blade.

“Elimination of the Fund may require that we look carefully at each event that we produce to determine where cuts to the budget may be needed,” the statement says. “It is important to note that events such as the Capital Pride Celebration generate significant revenue for the D.C. government,” the statement says.

In mentioning World Pride 2025, the statement was referring to the decision by leaders of the international LGBTQ event known as World Pride, to select D.C. and the Capital Pride Alliance to host the 2025 World Pride in June of that year. Hundreds of thousands of visitors from foreign countries as well as from the host country usually attend Word Pride events.

It couldn’t immediately be determined how the elimination of the city’s Festival Fund would impact the D.C. 2025 World Pride, but the Capital Pride statement suggests the elimination of the fund could dramatically increase the costs for putting it on.

A May 9 press release issued by the office of D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser expresses opposition to the Council committee’s proposed $1.5 million cut in the Festival Fund budget and the committee’s proposed cuts of $3 million each for two other programs that the release says have supported community-based businesses.

One of them is called the Great Streets and Small Business Fund and the other is known as the Food Access Fund, which supports restaurants in Wards 7 and 8, according to the mayor’s press release.

“Last week, the Council proposed cuts to these three programs, including the elimination of the Festival Fund,” the press release says.

These and multiple other budget-related proposals by the Committee on Business and Economic Development are outlined in detail in a 96-page draft report released on April 27. The report says the committee voted 4-0 to approve the report and its proposals, with one member of the committee — Council member Anita Bonds (D-At-Large) — being absent when the vote was taken.

Those voting yes included Council member Kenyan McDuffie (I-At Large), who chairs the committee, and Council members Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2), Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), and Vincent Gray (D-Ward 7).

D.C. gay activist John Fanning, who serves as Bonds’s director of constituent services, said Bonds opposes the proposed $1.5 million cut in the Festival Fund budget and plans to urge her fellow Council members to remove the proposed cut from the Council’s final budget proposal.
Fanning said Bonds was absent for the committee vote because she was attending a budget markup hearing at the same time for the Council’s Committee on Executive Administration and Labor for which Bonds is the chairperson.

According to Fanning, Bonds is aware of the importance of the Festival Fund’s support for events like Capital Pride and other events, including the Cherry Blossom Festival, the H Street Festival, the Fiesta DC Hispanic event, and an event called Porchfest.

“Council member Bonds also had concerns that any cancellations of festivals and events would impact the connectivity of people, after several years of isolation during the pandemic,” Fanning said.

Spokespersons for McDuffie and fellow committee members Allen, Pinto, and Gray didn’t immediately respond to a request by the Blade for comment on why they supported the proposed $1.5 million cut in the Festival Fund.

“The Capital Pride Alliance has reached out to the [Council] Chair and all members of the City Council to encourage them to object to this budget cut,” the Capital Pride statement to the Blade says.

The Council’s Committee of the Whole, which consists of all 13 Council members, and that is chaired by Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D-At-Large), was expected to consider, and possibly vote on, all Council committee budget proposals on May 16.

Later in the day on Thursday, May 11, after the Blade posted this story, Councilmember McDuffie responded to Blade’s earlier request for comment on why he and his fellow committee members voted to cut the $1.5 million Festival Fund.

“As a former civil rights attorney and current champion for equity and inclusion on the Council, I support the Pride Parade and appreciate its mission to fight for equality and honor the history of the LGBTQ+ community,” McDuffie told the Blade in a short statement.

But McDuffie said members of the Committee on Business and Economic Development made the difficult decision to make “deep cuts to several programs” to offset what he said was Mayor Bowser’s decision to defund in her proposed budget the Child Wealth Building Act or Baby Bonds program.

That program, McDuffie points out, is designed to “help close the racial wealth gap in our city by investing in children born into poverty” and providing financial support upon their turning 18 years of age to help pay, among other things, for education and purchasing a home.

“I am working with the Council Chairman to identify any available funds to support the Festival Fund,” McDuffie said.

In a separate response to a Blade inquiry, a spokesperson for Council Chair Mendelson said Mendelson is aware of the committee’s decision to cut the Festival Fund and he is looking for a way to restore that funding in his budget proposal. The spokesperson, Lindsey Walton, said Mendelson plans to release his budget proposal on Monday, May 15.