Town of Haymarket revenues and expenditures.The green bar shows net surplus/deficit.
Looks like Petersburg is not the only Virginia jurisdiction to close the 2016 fiscal year with a deficit. This chart comes to Bacon’s Rebellion by way of Haymarket citizen Robert Weir. Haymarket, a town of less than 2,000 people in Prince William County, overspent by $789,000 — equivalent to a quarter of its revenue.
Writes Weir: “It is not beyond the realm of possibility that in the coming years many of the smaller jurisdictions may prove to be an ever increasing drag on both the larger jurisdictions and the State as the financial woes rapidly expand.”
Virginia has dozens of towns, most of them tiny like Haymarket. Is there any sanction if they run deficits, a violation of the state constitution? Is anyone paying attention to what’s going on?
— JAB
