At a quick glance, it looks like the City of Cambridge’s (MA) TOTAL SPENDING (1) has grown rapidly over the past decade.  But if we break this spending into its individual components, we see a much more nuanced story.

For example, using Govistics’ “Trend” tools we find the city’s spending on highway services (2) has grown dramatically; fire expenditures (3) have merely kept pace with inflation; and public welfare (4) has significantly fallen.  Another great example of how Govistics allows users to dig below the top-line numbers and track what’s really happening!