Spending – How’s Your Municipality Doing?

You have told our Cape Issues group that taxes and spending are your top issues, and we have been working with the Herald to easily provide digital copies of every municipality’s budget for you. So how does your municipality stack up? We think the overall picture will surprise you.
The chart displays the growth in spending over the last two years for all 16 municipalities, We have also highlighted that inflation for the period was roughly only 2 percent. You can see a wide variety of results for the municipalities. Many are exceeding inflation, but some have done better with a few even having decreases!
The chart uses adopted municipal budget figures including any utilities that a municipality budgets separately. It excludes other items that affect our property taxes like schools, library or county budgets.
Adopted budget dollars are not actual spent amounts, but they are consistent and easy to use. We included any separate water and sewer and/or beach utilities for a complete spending picture. Only nine municipalities have budgets for a water and sewer utility and only two have a beach utility. These separate budgets usually receive much less attention in many local discussions, but affect taxpayers significantly.
Lastly, spending can include grants and aid from federal, state and other resources. In many cases these are offsetting revenues and expenditures with no direct effect on local taxpayers. However, we know we pay the bills for these indirectly.
While we will continue our research into budget subcategories for you, we really need your help to better control spending! How did your municipality do in the chart? Are you comfortable with how your tax dollars are spent? For example, is a significant portion of spending due to desirable capital projects that have improved your community? Take a look at your town’s spending on-line and express your opinions publicly! Each of us can make a difference in improving our community’s path for the future!