D.C. officials earn in city, live in burbs

Last of three parts.

More than half of the D.C. government’s employees live outside the District, taking about 60 percent of the government’s $1.73 billion payroll to spend — and be taxed — in the suburbs.

Meanwhile, city officials have been rebuffed in their efforts to expand the District’s narrow revenue base by taxing commuters.

Ed Lazere, director of the nonprofit D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, said a “very crude” estimate shows that the District loses $50 million to $100 million in potential revenue from city government jobs held by nonresidents.

“This is big,” Mr. Lazere said. “I guess the question is why they don’t live here and what can we do to get them to live here.”

More than 18,100 — or 46.4 percent — of the D.C. government’s 39,000 workers say their principal residence is in the District, according to city payroll records obtained by The Washington Times under the Freedom of Information Act.

The combined pay of the city government workers who live in the District totals about $686 million — slightly less than 40 percent of the D.C. government’s $1.73 billion payroll.

By comparison, about 17,800 — or 45.5 percent — of the city government’s work force identify Maryland as their principal place of residence. But their combined pay of more than $885 million accounts for more than 51 percent of the D.C. government’s payroll.

In addition, 2,900 of D.C. government workers live in Virginia, taking home a combined total of more than $149 million, or about 8.6 percent of the city’s payroll.

The records show that many of the District’s highest-paid government workers opt to live outside the city, causing the District to lose potential revenue from property, sales and income taxes.

Twenty-two of the District’s 43 government employees who are paid at least $150,000 a year live outside the city.

The District imposes a 5.75 percent sales tax and a property tax rate of 92 cents per $100 assessed value. It also levies a top income tax rate of 9 percent.

Among the D.C. agencies that employ the most residents is the public school system, which has 7,312 of its 13,707 employees living in the District.

One of the agencies with the least resident workers is the Office of the Chief Technology Officer. About 78 percent of its 217-person staff resides outside the city, including the agency’s director — Chief Technology Officer Suzanne J. Peck, who earns $144,538 annually and lives in Virginia.

Only a few hundred government employees are required to live in the District. They typically work in the city’s executive service, which includes agency directors, and the excepted service, which includes the staffs of the mayor and city administrator.

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