The DC Representation & Tax Emancipation Act

🚨 THE TALE OF TWO CITIES ENDS NOW: $120,000+ IN TOTAL FAMILY VALUE 🚨

The Representation and Tax Emancipation Act (RTEA) &

We have spent two centuries asking politely for basic rights while a corrupt political class lets developers and lobbyists squeeze working-class families out of our city. Independent mayoral candidate Khan is "Unbossed and Unbought"—taking $0 in donations so he answers only to YOU. If the federal government refuses to give us voting representation, we are shifting the bill of our entire city to the U.S. Treasury. If they want to rule D.C., they can finally pay for D.C.

THE NUMBERS: WHAT KHAN’S PLATFORM SAVES A TYPICAL FAMILY EACH YEAR

• $11,500 Tax Holiday: By engineering a zero-tax municipality and invoicing Congress via the Federal Sovereignty Fee, we erase all local D.C. income, property, and sales taxes. For a typical family earning the median income of ~$109,870, this removes a 10% to 11% local tax burden, leaving thousands of dollars in your pocket.

• $15,600 Rent/Mortgage Savings: The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in D.C. hovers around $2,200 per month. Khan will deliver 100,000 new units and enforce a rigid $900 rent and mortgage cap for one-bedrooms, instantly keeping $1,300 a month ($15,600 a year) out of corporate landlords' pockets.

• $24,000 Universal Childcare Benefit: D.C. has the highest childcare costs in the nation, averaging over $2,000 a month per child. Khan’s no-cost universal childcare centers—located within a 10-minute walk of every home—completely erase this financial barrier.

• $65,000+ Skilled Trade Wage Floor: Under Khan's platform, the minimum wage will be raised to $50/hour for essential skilled trades (including construction, sanitation, childcare, and home healthcare). A full-time essential worker making $50/hour earns a base salary of $104,000/year, shattering the city's predatory wealth gap.

• $4,000 Total Mobility Dividend: No more fare gates or card taps. Khan will mandate free buses and 24/7 Metro service, saving a typical daily commuter up to $1,500 annually in transit expenses. D.C. currently extracts hundreds of millions annually from residents through predatory automated traffic enforcement and aggressive ticketing (a form of regressive taxation). Khan’s platform will permanently cap all parking and speeding fines at a flat $15, completely ban the practice of double fining, and grant every D.C. resident up to 4 hours of free metered parking each day. For the typical D.C. driver accustomed to the city's punitive ticket traps, these regulatory rollbacks keep an estimated $150 to $200 a month ($2,100 a year) out of the city's coffers and inside your bank account.

• Full Income Security: Establish 36 weeks of paid parental leave with total job protection, combined with a $100,000 starting salary for teachers and a $25/day stipend for students in grades 6-12 to end chronic absenteeism.

🏛️ LEGAL JURISPRUDENCE TO FORCE THE FEDERAL HAND

How do we fund this? By weaponizing federal law. Under Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 of the Constitution, Congress holds plenary authority over D.C. Under the Anti-Deficiency Act (31 U.S. Code § 1342), if Congress refuses to pay the city's municipal invoice, any resulting operational pause triggers an immediate humanitarian emergency. Our municipal workforce is statutorily authorized to keep working to protect public safety, legally forcing the federal government to retrospectively backfund our schools, infrastructure, and zero-fare transit network.

When national Democrats win the White House and secure overwhelming majorities in Congress, they can permanently rewrite the Home Rule Act to subsidize this model—or finally grant us D.C. Statehood to let us govern ourselves and fund our needs as we see fit!