District of Columbia: Expenditures & Revenues

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the District of Columbia's revenues and expenditures in comparison with other cities. GAO noted that: (1) the District's 1991 tax capacity was indexed at 123 and its 1991 tax effort at 157 as compared to the national average capacity of 100; (2) calculation of indices for the District were complicated by the District's responsibility for functions normally performed by state, school district, county, city, and other local government units; and (3) the District had higher per capita expenditures than the 5 comparison cities, but these differences may be due to the difficulty of combining various levels of government expenditures, the efficiency of service delivery, the types and level of services provided, and differences in wage and labor rates and other expense factors in providing services.