The mayor and council set local taxes and a budget, which Congress must approve. The
Government Accountability Office and other analysts have estimated that the city's high percentage of tax-exempt property and the Congressional prohibition of commuter taxes create a structural deficit in the district's local budget of anywhere between $470million and over $1billion per year. Congress typically provides additional grants for federal programs such as
Medicaid and the operation of the
local justice system; however, analysts claim that the payments do not fully resolve the imbalance.