District of Columbia: Briefing Summary of the
Long-Range Capital Financial Plan Report

Background
The Office of the Chief Financial Officer’s 2025 Long-Range Capital Financial Plan Report assesses the condition of the District of Columbia’s (the “District”) current assets, future capital needs, and funding availability. The plan then optimizes resources to address all identified capital needs in the shortest possible time.

The District’s asset management system, the Capital Asset Replacement Scheduling System (CARSS), contains a detailed inventory of all District-owned assets, including land, buildings, roads and streets, vehicles, and equipment. This system provides the basis for developing the District’s capital improve-ments plan (CIP) as part of the annual budget process and determines the cost of deferred maintenance for current assets.

The District is now generally recognized as having the most complete capital asset management system of any state or local government in the country. This system has been noted by the bond rating agencies as a key factor in the maintenance of the District’s high bond ratings.

Key highlights of this year’s report include:

• $16.70 billion of total capital needs identified; approximately $10.71 billion of those needs are funded in the FY 2026 - 2031 CIP.
• $5.98 billion of unfunded capital needs remain during the 6-year CIP period, up from $2.99 billion last year, of which approximately $2.44 billion is deferred maintenance.
• The increase in unmet capital needs is attributable to a net decrease in the size of the capital budget due to lower revenue forecasts compared to previous projections.
•  The analysis shows that unmet capital needs can be funded as early as FY 2037, if the District commits 16.2% of its general fund budget to capital projects (12% to support debt service on borrowings and an average of 4.2% on pay-as-you-go cash funding) and no additional capital projects are added before addressing currently identified unmet needs.
• The District has a comparatively lower cost of borrowing compared to other cities and states due to strong bond ratings. The District’s two main credits that are used to finance its Capital Im-provements Plan are both very highly rated: General Obligation bonds (Aa1/AA+/AA+) and In-come Tax Secured Revenue bonds (Aa1/AAA/AA+) by Moody’s, S&P and Fitch, respectively.
• Challenges to executing this plan include economic uncertainty due to a variety of factors includ-ing persistent inflation, financial market volatility, and changes in federal trade, immigration and employment policies that could significantly affect the growth of the District’s economy, particu-larly the continued contraction of the federal workforce.
• The nation’s capital remains in a strong position compared to its peers to navigate these chal-lenges and address its infrastructure needs due to prudent financial management policies (in-cluding strong reserves and highly funded pension and OPEB liabilities), a state-of-the-art asset management system, and a diverse local economy.

The report can also be found at www.DCbonds.com.

2025 Long-Range Capital Financial Plan Report - Documents:

• Full Report
• Part I - 2025 Updates
• Part II - History and Background
• Part III - Appendices

Prior Reports