D.C. property owners haven’t had much trouble making tax payments during the first few weeks of the coronavirus-inspired economic downturn — but the city’s revenue projections for the next few years look gloomy as property values could take a beating.
That’s the word from D.C. Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey DeWitt, who delivered updated financial projections to Mayor Muriel Bowser and the D.C. Council Friday. He told local leaders he’s particularly concerned that future property tax revenues could take a dive starting in fiscal 2022, independent of the $721 million in lost revenue he expects the District will see this year as sales tax collections crater.
Specifically, he predicts that next year’s real estate assessments will start reflecting the dire new economic realities brought on by the pandemic. That means 2021’s property tax revenues will likely hold stable, clocking in at a projected $2.82 billion, but they will likely dip to $2.81 billion in 2022.
Such a change would represent the District’s first decline in property taxes since 2011, as the Great Recession’s ripple effects spread. And DeWitt is projecting only a slow recovery after that, with revenues inching back to $2.89 billion in 2023 and $2.99 billion in 2024. Those represent drops of $150 million and $142 million, respectively, from DeWitt’s estimates in February before the dangers of coronavirus were fully apparent.
