***UPDATE: Thanks to blog reader, Stephanie, it seems that Vince Gray worked to find the funding. See this article here. Thanks Stephanie!

This article from the Washington Business Journal has to scare some people about the future of the Street Cars in DC. Although most of the Council decided not to touch the Anacostia street car (which I assume is a positive thing), they did decide to cut the budget to bring the Street Cars to H Street by 2012. This is disappointing as how that will affect the entire time line for the rest of the City slated for Street Cars — such as Rhode Island Ave NE.

Vince Gray’s reasons for the cuts are suspect and not a clear reason for the delay. He claims that there are many questions to be answered but cutting the budget back to just $3million to further plan is ludicrous. Moving ahead with a full budget would allow questions to be answered at the same time the project moves forward. This will seriously hurt the redevelopment of H Street, while small businesses have invested in….which could further discourage investment in areas slated for Street Cars and redevelopment.

Let’s hope this isn’t the case.