You may have gotten a raise after tax reform passed. Your company might even have given you a bonus. Your taxes did go down. But, that extra money might be going out just as fast as it’s coming in.
The Labor Department says your cost of living is on the rise. And it's going up faster than it has in a decade. You are paying for water. You pay for air for your tires. Taking the family to a ballgame or movies costs more than it used to. Economist Vance Ginn at the Texas Public Policy Foundation says there are other things you're paying more for than you used to.
“Here in Texas we’ve seen prices rise with homes, housing in general, energy, and gas prices have been going up,” Ginn said.
Consumer prices are up 2.9 percent from last year. Inflation is at 2.9 percent. Ginn says this is the product of a booming economy.
“Much of what we’ve seen over the last year has been pro-growth. The supply side of the economy will continue to expand, and that tends to drive down prices,” Ginn explained.
So while prices have gone up, Ginn says we could see the slowing down of inflation if the Federal Reserve raises interest rates a couple of more times this year, as they have talked about doing.