A newspaper article from 1981, only 25 years ago, reads: “Official total of the 1981-82 Iredell County budget...is $14,965,479.” The county’s general fund budget for FY 2006-07 is $142,800,000, a nearly tenfold increase.

Of course, Iredell’s population has grown rapidly. In 1980 the county was home to 82,500 souls, thus the budget computed to about $181 per capita. Today’s population is estimated at about 135,000. At $181 per capita, the budget would be $24,435,000.

Everyone knows that prices have increased. According to the Consumer Price Index, a 1981 dollar was worth $2.23 in current dollars. A budget of $24,435,000 in 1981 dollars would compute to $54,490,000 in today’s money.

Thus if the amount the county government spent in 1981 had only kept pace with inflation and population growth, this year’s budget would total about $55 million. Stated differently, the county should be able to provide the services it did in 1981 for about $55 million. However stated, in real, per-capita dollars, the county is spending well over twice the amount it did 25 years ago.

Much of the increase is due to expanded infrastructure to accommodate growth, and some is due to the reality that a more urbanized population requires more services. But much of the increase is due simply to an expansion in the size and scope of government, some of which is mandated and some of which is not.

The current budget projects property tax revenues of $70.5 million. Sales and other taxes, fees, grants, and miscellaneous sources of revenue total over $70 million. If these revenue sources could be maintained at a lower rate of spending, the county could provide the services it did in 1981 without a property tax.