A New Recipe: Tax Game Measures Tax Bills

By Jane Sutter
Managing Editor
The Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, NY
Feb. 3, 2004

Citizens of New York State often gripe about the high rate of taxes in their communities, particularly the property tax, state income tax and sales tax.

To give Democrat and Chronicle readers a chance to see how they really compared to citizens in other states, the newspaper’s web site designed an interactive tax calculator. It was one of several interactive exercises included in our five-part “Fighting for Rochester’s Future” series.

Reporter Steve Orr and assistant new media editor Ian Auch created the calculator for the installment on taxation. It allowed people to compare their tax rates to people living in 16 other cities. Users keyed in information such as their income level, marital status and home value to see how tax rates compare in such varied places as Nashville, Minneapolis and Seattle. They could then determine if they would pay more in property taxes, income taxes, sales taxes, and even gasoline taxes were they to live in one of those cities.

“Taxes are like a batch of chili,” the game suggested. “There are a thousand different recipes, all of which can leave you with indigestion.”

The “Fighting for Rochester’s Future” web site also contains other interactive games, including quizzes on public safety and standardized testing, and a chance to rebuild a deteriorating downtown Rochester.

People could also participate in the project through live web chats with community leaders and online coupons to express their preferences for solutions to problems related to the economy, public safety and so on.

The project extended through the fall 2003 elections, which filled such key local offices as county executive and district attorney (incumbents were retiring in both), town supervisor races and city school board elections. On the web, citizens could type in their zip code to find out about candidates for the local races and read the candidates’ answers to questions posed by the newspaper.

The entire project garnered a fairly large community response. We received 1,145 responses through coupons, essays, letters, e-mail and voicemail. Based on the number of hits to the front pages of our interactive online games, we estimate the games were visited a total of 8,000 times. We also used feedback from our panels and the community to frame our election coverage.

In October, “Fighting for Rochester’s Future” was part of the program at the annual State of Rochester’s Economy luncheon, sponsored by the Rochester Downtown Development Corp. More than 500 business and community leaders heard Democrat and Chronicle Publisher David Hunke discuss the initiative.

We wrapped up the series on Jan. 4, 2004, with a look back at the solutions suggested and the progress made on the five key topics in the series. Editor Karen Magnuson, in a column published the same day, quoted Heidi Zimmer-Meyer, executive director of the Downtown Development Corp., as saying the series improved community awareness.

“Fighting For Rochester’s Future focused on key issues that the community hasn’t grappled with adequately. It provided the focus, background information, new ways of looking at the issues and a critical edge to the thinking in this community,” Zimmer-Meyer said. This translates into more productive discussion of the issues. You have played a huge role in tipping the balance of the way we do things. I’ve seen it in business meetings and in my travels around the community."