Local government budgets growing faster than inflation or population

Good Tuesday morning! Also today -- James City home sales slip but values surge, guide to early voting in the Democratic primary, and a list of fun events.

Williamsburg’s new police station, other construction driving up spending. (Williamsburg Watch photo)

Anyone who’s been attending public budget hearings is familiar with the perennial tension between residents who want local governments to spend more to expand services and those who want relief from growing taxes.

As our representatives work to finalize their new budgets for the fiscal year starting July 1, we thought we’d take a look to see which side has been winning the battle.

Williamsburg Watch compared the growth in local budgets since 2017 – an admittedly arbitrary starting point –to growth in both inflation and population. We found spending increased significantly faster than either population or inflation, as you can see below: