Over 600 use Seattle Times' "Ax and Tax"
to Solve Washington's Budget Woes

By Kyle Margules Orland
J-Lab Staff Writer
May 16, 2003

More than 600 people submitted budgets to The Seattle Times' recent "Ax and Tax" interactive state budget balancing game.

Between April 20 and April 29, 604 people told The Times their thoughts on what state programs to cut and what taxes to add to fix the state's $2.65 billion budget deficit. Nearly 90 percent of those users submitted a balanced or surplus budget, according to a recent Times article.

The game invites players to choose from 48 spending cuts and 26 revenue increases. As users check off boxes indicating their decisions, the game keeps track of how much more money has to be raised to balance the budget.

A Times analysis of the submitted budgets shows little consensus in how to solve the budget mess. Only four of the revenue increase options received support from a majority of users.

Rob Thomas, a Times Reporter that did research and writing for the game, said that the extra work it takes to put such a project online is worth it. "The feedback you get in comparison to the average budget story is just much more," he said.

This is the second year The Times has used an online game to gauge the public's feelings on the budget. Though The Times is no longer taking user-submitted budgets, interested web surfers can still play the game on the Times' web site.