An often-overlooked element of federal spending is pass-through monies to local jurisdictions including counties, municipalities, schools, and various state entities. Which means that exploding local budgets, in addition to digging deeper into taxpayer pockets via state and local tax increases, are also one of the major drivers of the increase in federal deficit spending and the resulting inflation. How much have cities increased their spending since 2020?
I got a question this morning from my co-host Chuck Warren about increased spending in Maricopa County since 2020, and it got me thinking about how much and quickly local budgets have grown in the wake of federal Covid funding largesse, so I ran the numbers for some key cities and counties in Arizona, as well as other selected cities around the country. The results are staggering.
Is your city at least 50% better now than it was in 2020?
Maricopa County – 56% increase
2020 – $2.5 billion
2025 – $3.9 billion
City of Phoenix – 60% increase
2020 – $4.5 billion
2025 – $7.2 billion
City of Tempe – 108% increase
2020 – $766 million
2025 – $1.6 billion
City of Tucson – 50% increase
2020 – $1.6 billion
2025 – $2.4 billion
Pima County – 30% increase
2020 – $1.3 billion
2025 – $1.7 billion
Flagstaff – 107% increase
2020 – $280 million
2025 – $580 million
And for comparison, some major cities outside of Arizona…
New York City – 26% increase
2020 – $89 billion
2025 – $112 billion
Chicago – 88% increase
2020 – $8.8 billion
2025 – $16.6 billion
Dallas – 332% increase*
2020 – $1.37 billion
2025 – $4.55 billion
Los Angeles – 59% increase
2020 – $8.1 billion
2025 – $12.9 billion
*Caveat on Dallas: they have the worst budget formatting and public information of any city I looked at, so it’s possible I screwed that one up, because I’m not entirely sure if the figure I found for 2020 included capital improvement projects. So, either I’m an inadequate researcher, or the Dallas City Council are the most profligate spenders of new tax money in the country.
Note: the opinions expressed herein are those of Sam Stone only and not his co-host Chuck Warren or Breaking Battlegrounds’ staff.
