Georgetown's Budget Growth

The Wilco Sun recently printed a story on how the city's financial report shows the numbers are up. The numbers presented are indeed up over a 1 year period, but, relevant information is omitted from the story that allows a better assessment of the financial direction of the city.

Here is the data from the city's Comprehensive Annual Financial Report(CAFR) for 2017 shown by the Sun:

What is missing is the total budget expenditures over a period of time. These data are from the city's annual budget reports.

It is clear from this chart that total budget growth over the last 5 years ranges from 12.24% to 16.5% with the 5 year annual growth rate of 11.64%. This gives a clear picture of how the City Council continues to spend the citizen's money at a much higher rate than the growth in population plus inflation(7.6%) over the same 5 years.

Where is the money going? Why to expanded city services like Geary Park, GoGeo bus service, and the new city hall.