D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray said Monday that the District boosted its savings account past the $1 billion mark for the first time in years after it ended the last fiscal year with a $240 million surplus, prompting calls from the D.C. Council chairman to consider a repeal of past tax increases.

"One of my top priorities in office has been to stabilize and rebuild the District's financial health after years of spending down our crucial savings account," Gray said as he released D.C's annual audit. "I'm proud that, despite a very challenging economic climate and difficult budgetary choices we were forced to make, the District government saved well, spent wisely and put ourselves in excellent shape for the future."

D.C. officials said program cuts and more than $97 million in additional tax revenue helped yield a surplus for the 2011 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30.

Leaner times

»D.C.'s version of a savings account hasn't always been flush. During the 1996 fiscal year -- near the beginning of the D.C. Financial Control Board era -- it had a deficit of $518 million. That was also the last fiscal year in which the District had a general budget deficit.

"Net assets increased mainly because of effective management of expenditures and increases in revenues from property taxes, income and franchise taxes and sales and use taxes," the District said in the audit.

The cumulative fund balance has been in the black since the late 1990s and at one time had about $1.6 billion banked. In the 2008 fiscal year, though, the District began draining the fund, and its value eventually dropped below $1 billion.

Last year, D.C. raised some income taxes in a bid to shore up the District's finances -- increases that Council Chairman Kwame Brown said Monday he wanted to explore repealing.

"Clearly we want to give excellent city services, which the mayor and his team have done an excellent job at, but I believe that everything should be on the table and we should evaluate everything," Brown said. "When we say that $240 million came in, residents want to know what's in it for them."