Where Did That Money Go?

At the budget hearing last November, Robert Rasner, a member of the citizens' committee proposing charter change, pointed out that since 2020 the city budget has increased by close to a million dollars a year--from $14,910,741 to $19,771,551. He concluded by asking, "Where did that money go? Are our lives better for it?"

At the December meeting of the Common Council Finance Committee, city treasurer Heather Campbell undertook to answer the question of why the city budget increased by close to $5 million in five years' time. Her presentation included a lot of pie charts, which members of the committee had in hand, but members of the public attending both in person and virtually could not see. 

The visuals that accompanied Campbell's presentation can now be found online here. The video recording of the meeting can be found here. If you are interested in understanding the city budget and why it has increased by more than 30 percent in the past five years, you are encouraged to listen to the video recording of the meeting while studying the pie charts. 

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