best government tool. ever.

[mellowtigger]

Technology is great. The user interface still needs a lot of improvement, but this is exactly the kind of tool that can help promote democratic discussion! Individuals now have the power to experiment with government budgeting.

This website offers a tool to help people see just how difficult (or easy) it is to balance the Minnesota state budget.  Tweaking taxes upward (not even a lot) solves the deficit very quickly.  Cutting expenditures requires some really awful choices when you see how all of the costs are divided between various programs.

http://www.mymnbudget.com/

How do the various candidates stack up, when you get to play with the numbers yourself? They only link to PDF documents instead of providing a template with the user interface widgets already adjusted for you, but at least it's a start! As this local newspaper article mentions: "[The Democratic candidate] boasts, not unjustly, that he has been "far more explicit than other candidates about what I intend to do." " 

The Republican mantra ("Cut taxes!  Cut spending!") looks pretty awful when you watch just which programs have to get axed, rather than blaming some nebulous and nefarious "gummint". Only one of the Big Three candidates has no explicit budget proposal on the site: the Republican candidate.

I happen to dislike both the Democratic and Republican candidates, so I am looking to give my vote to a minor party instead. This tool, however, is awesome for comparing the various political platforms on one important issue.

Comments

Thank you!

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks for trying out the tool, Terry! Agreed that the software isn't exactly easy on the eyes, but you hit the nail on the head with the point we are trying to get across. The budget problem is very complex and voters shouldn't settle for easy answers from gubernatorial candidates, regardless of party affiliation.

Thanks again,
Erin from MyMNBudget.com