Mike the Mad Biologist

On Monday, I discussed how House Republicans, led by conspiracist wackadoodle James Comey has proposed legislation to prohibit the mainland colony of the District of Columbia from raising taxes. That legislation also would require Congressional legislation for D.C. to be able to raise property assessments (e.g., raising the estimate of your house is worth). If you thought California’s Proposition 13 was bad, well, this is even worse.

Now it appears DoorDash, which is butthurt over a 20 cent per delivery tax for orders, a fee that pays for improving access for lower-income people to healthy food, is attempting to undermine D.C. residents’ limited self-governance (boldface mine):

DoorDash unsuccessfully fought the fee, delivering a petition with 500 signatures opposing it to lawmakers, running ads on social media, commissioning a poll that in which 63% of respondents said they didn’t support the fee, and parking a mobile digital display outside the Wilson Building.

A spokesperson for the company said the fee was akin to balancing the city’s budget “off the backs of working people in D.C. who can’t afford another tax,” and said that more than 20% of DoorDash deliveries in 2025 went to low-income communities. The company filled some 150,000 orders from residents using SNAP food benefits, the spokesperson said…

Nadeau brushed aside those concerns. “If a person orders once a week it will amount to $10 a year,” she told NOTUS on Tuesday. “We should be real honest about who can afford to order food in the first place. Groceries and access to that I’m sympathetic to. Some of the money is going to subsidize grocery delivery, so I think it offsets that concern.”

…The fee is expected to raise $6.6 million per year. Of that, some $200,000 will go toward extending an existing pilot program through which 1,000 low-income D.C. residents get a free 12-month Instacart membership to help cover grocery delivery costs.

Another $200,000 will be used to make up for lost federal funding that paid for grocery deliveries by Dreaming Out Loud, a nonprofit grocery store and cafe in Ward 8. And $1 million will go to Nourish D.C., a program that gives grants to new food businesses in underserved neighborhoods.

It’s just galling how DoorDash is willing to undermine D.C.’s limited self-governance–and make no mistake, Comer’s legislation will blow a hole in D.C.’s budget. What makes it even more ridiculous is that Comer’s legislation, as written, wouldn’t cover the 20 cent fee.

As I put it Monday:

I realize most people think of D.C. statehood in terms of two additional Democratic senators, but for the residents of the mainland colony, it is about our ability to govern ourselves. If Comey’s shit ass state of Kentucky ever had to put up with the kind of meddling in their state governance that D.C. does, D.C. statehood would be a sacrament.

D.C. statehood now.