A $19.8 Million Gap Next Year, $86.1 Million by 2031: What Alexandria’s Own Budget Model Is Really Saying
Alexandria’s FY2027 budget is balanced, and the city’s five-year planning model — a standard feature of its budget books — again projects spending outrunning revenue in the years after it: a $19.8 million shortfall in FY2028, growing to $86.1 million by FY2031. Gaps like this are not new, and the city has closed larger ones before. What is different this time is how close the first step is, and that a substantial part of it — a debt-service jump of 14.6% in FY2028 — is already on the repayment schedule, layered on a model that grows most spending at a flat 4% a year while revenue grows about 2.4%.