The D.C. Council is scheduled to vote Tuesday on the city's $5.7 billion spending plan for fiscal 2009, which likely will include tax relief for small businesses.

Council Chairman Vincent Gray wrote legislation last year providing $96 million in real estate tax relief for businesses, cutting the commercial property tax rate across the board.

But Mayor Adrian Fenty reduced the amount of relief to $15 million in his proposed spending plan, citing Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi's reduced revenue estimates.

Gray is expected today to push the tax relief figure to more than $21 million, using funds from the public-safety budget. But Carrie Brooks, a spokeswoman for the mayor, says transferring the money could hurt efforts to increase police presence.

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