SEATTLE — As the Seattle City Council looks ahead to a likely $250 million budget deficit next year, members have begun looking back to better understand how the city got into this fix.

Leading the process is second-term Councilmember Dan Strauss, who chairs the council's budget committee. On Tuesday, his office published a more than 200-page review of the city's budget over the last five years, the most comprehensive look back in recent memory.

"I will go as far as to say we are auditing our budget," he said, a nod to the oft-repeated line by candidates in the recent election.

Underpinning the budget chasm facing the city is a basic math equation dating back a decade: City Hall spent heavily from 2013 to 2019 to keep up with Seattle's ravenous growth, as sales tax revenues from construction easily outpaced inflation.

The pandemic reversed the calculation and now construction has slowed while inflation remains stubborn. The result is a revenue stream struggling to keep pace with the growing cost of labor and administration in the city: More than 80% of the budget's general fund growth in the last five years comes from inflation, with a smaller portion the result of new programs and policies, according to the review.

"There was a lot of growth that was going on [in the budget] and it was needed, otherwise you won't be able to become that big city," Strauss said.

Now, however, the city is facing a correction that leaves Mayor Bruce Harrell and the council with the choice of cutting staff, raising new money or repurposing funds from the city's payroll tax.

Though inflation is the primary driver of the gap, there are other factors, some structural and some onetime costs: Legal claims against the city have jumped, insurance premiums have increased, technology upgrades have ballooned.

The city's finance department grew 35%, or $118 million, since 2019. The department manages the city's facilities, and a couple of significant expenses have been the cost of replacing vehicles and of building a new North Seattle fire station.

The cost of internal-facing departments, like human resources and technology, have gone up by 50% percent as claim settlements and the cost of paying into workers' compensation have increased

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