Budgets

Seattle Times "You Build It" Transportation Project Calculator

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/local/links/transportationgame/calculator/

You decide which projects should go in the budget and which should just go away with this interactive Seattle Times form. You get to choose the level of funding for a variety of transportation and transit “megaprojects,” such as building HOV lanes, renovating highways, and setting up new bus and rail stations. Then you have to allocate new taxes to pay for them all. You can also submit your (hopefully) balanced budget to the paper for use in a future story about transportation solutions.

2005 Minnesota Public Radio Budget Balancer

http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/projects/2005/03/budget/

In a follow-up to its 2003 game, MPR once again invites users to step into the governor’s shoes and do battle with a $4.6 billion deficit. A slick, simplified Flash interface puts state budget options on a single screen and instantly reflects players’ spending or revenue choices on its scoreboard. Users can now also write in why they chose to cut or add spending to a particular category, generating possible reporting opportunities.

2003 Minnesota Public Radio Budget Balancer

http://news.mpr.org/features/2003/03/10_newsroom_budgetsim/

Batten Award

Minnesota Public Radio invites you to be governor for a day and try to solve the state’s $4.2 billion tax deficit in this Batten Award-winning project. The budget balancer offers a wide array of choices for balancing the budget, including across the board spending cuts, increasing property taxes, cutting specific programs, and delaying payments. The balancer even gives you comments on your choices, warning you about potential political and economic fallout that could result from your decisions. Choose carefully.

Seattle Times "Ax and Tax"

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/local/links/axtax/

“Last year, we asked you to try your hand at solving the state’s worst budget shortfall in decades. Guess what? The problem is bigger now.” So says the introduction to the Seattle Times’ latest web-based calculator. As the title implies, you choose what to cut from the budget and what to tax additionally to fix a $2.45 billion state budget shortfall. Be careful, though, as pop-up windows in response to your choices will warn you that people won’t lose their cherished programs without a fight, and that Washington voters are none to fond of taxes. The Times plans to compile the data submitted by visitors into an article about budget priorities.

Austin American-Satesman's "Budget Game" (Registration Required)

http://www.statesman.com/insight/content/norails/budget_game

The 78th Texas Legislature is looking at a $9.9 billion gap between the state’s expected revenue and what Texas must spend to maintain existing programs. Readers get a chance to play lawmaker and fill that gap through a mix of spending cuts and new taxes. The budget exercise builds in a political cost for each choice. Being in favor of a tax on food, for instance, would increase a public relations liability that could affect a politicians reelection. The trick is to fill the gap but keep your job.

The NYC Budget Game

http://www.gothamgazette.com/budgetgame/budgetgame.html

The Gotham Gazette is behind this interactive game that lets visitors balance New York’s $44.5 billion budget. Starting with the city’s current $3.8 million deficit, users add percentage points to specific taxes and remove money from specific expenditures until the deficit becomes a surplus. Pop-up windows let users know when new taxes are going to get you in trouble with voters, state leaders or even the federal government. After playing, users can compare their budget to the mayor’s with a handy pie chart, submit their proposed budget to The Gazette and talk about the game on the site’s message boards.

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