Our friends at the Center for Governmental Research in New York have a very handy product that helps users find and compare public finance data for U.S. states, counties, towns, school districts, etc: Govistics.

In a blog post today, they link to a story about Gold Bar's decision to ask voters to agree to a new one-time levy per household. As the author of the post notes,

Over the past decade, tax revenues in Gold Bar, WA have grown well above the rate of inflation.  And it looks like things may be about to get even worse….

The high growth in Gold Bar's taxes is not unique; for example, nearby Sultan's tax revenues also grew much faster than inflation. On the other hand, tax revenue for Everett kept pace with inflation.

Although the post's subject is likely of interest to our readers, I mention it mostly because I've been meaning to recommend the Govistics site. It includes data on spending, revenues, employment, payroll, crime and population (as available). You can look at trends within categories or subcategories and compare across communities. It's free to browse state and county data, but to drill down farther you'll need a subscription.