Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Wages Stagnant - City Budgets Grow - Housing Affordablility Declines

The American wage earner has seen essential flat wages over the last 40+ years as shown by the following chart.Hamilton Project

There is no particular reason to believe that the average wages in Georgetown have grown significantly more than the national average, yet government spending is increasing at rates greater than inflation plus population growth. Let's look at some data.







Inflation is running at 1.8% annually and population is increasing at a 3.87% rate for a combined rate of 5.67%. Compare that with Georgetown's budget growth rate of 10.34% and it is easy to come to the conclusion that this is not sustainable.

So when is our city council going to recognize the reality that taxpayers wages are not keeping up with the city budget growth? And then people wonder why there is not enough affordable housing. People's wages are not keeping up with the cost of living and the cost of government.

Thus it would seem to be a "no brainer" that reducing the cost of government is one element in reducing the cost of living which will make housing more affordable in Georgetown.

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