It's your turn: Create the state's budget It's your turn: Create the state's budget (May 25, 2005)

By Renee Batti

Almanac News Editor

So you think the politicians in Sacramento are playing games with your taxes and your access to public services as they gear up for another budget fight, do you?

This year, you can play that game, too -- and what you discover along the way is likely to educate you, and may even fascinate you.

The California Budget Challenge, the first endeavor of Noel Perry's Next Ten project, is an online, interactive, educational tool that allows those who log on at next-ten.org to create their own state budget, setting spending and revenue-generating priorities for the next 10 years.

"We call ourselves Next Ten because we aren't here for the quick fix," says an introductory statement on the Web site. "We have our sights set on joining with others to improve the state over the next 10 years, and the 10 years after that."

Mr. Perry says he started toying with the idea of creating an educational program addressing issues facing California about two years ago. Troubled by the lack of focus on the future on the part of both lawmakers and citizens, Mr. Perry says he concluded that the California Dream was in peril.

Next Ten will focus on a series of issues in time, with likely topics including energy and water. But its first project -- putting the budget under the spotlight -- appears to be catching on. Stephen Levy, director of the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto, says that more than 10,000 Californians have hit the site already, and thousands have submitted their own budgets.

An economist enlisted by Mr. Perry to help with the Budget Challenge, Mr. Levy says teachers are increasingly using the tool in their classrooms -- a development both men are thrilled by.

Mr. Perry says he wants Next Ten to be empowering, giving residents the confidence that often results from knowledge so they will work toward improving their state. He is committed to keeping the site nonpartisan so that it will be seen as a credible source on the state's challenges -- one that presents those often-complicated issues in a way that's comprehensible to the lay person.

Next Ten's Budget Challenge goes beyond facts and numbers: It forces people to think about "resource-allocation challenges" that exist when budgets are hammered out, and about how the state's spending and revenue decisions should reflect the values Californians want to support, Mr. Perry says.

How it works

Participants have access to a wealth of information and specific calculations when they log on to take the challenge. Spending categories include options in areas of K-12 and higher education, Medi-Cal and other health-related programs, criminal justice, and spending on state employees.

Choices in revenue categories are mostly in the area of -- you guessed it -- taxes.

The 2004-05 budget shows a $2.1 billion deficit. If spending and revenue practices remain the same, that deficit will grow to $12.2 billion in 10 years, according to Mr. Levy's projections.

The impact of each choice is shown immediately, and a participant can change his or her choice. Most questions can be addressed quickly and clearly with a click on a link.

Participants are invited to give feedback at the end of the process, and Mr. Levy says he's received numerous comments. While many of them are positive, some express frustration because the writer's own solution wasn't included in the list of options.

Mr. Levy explains that in order for Next Ten not to be perceived as partisan, the list of choices in the Budget Challenge include only those options that are part of Sacramento's current discussion of possibilities -- a list that is a moving target.

The changing nature of the process is something the two men have planned for. The facts, figures and options will be changed periodically to reflect proposed budget revisions until the real thing is signed by the governor. Mr. Levy says he hopes to have a new version of the challenge up by mid-June.
(Writer's aside: I took the Budget Challenge by the horns, and reduced the projected 10-year, $12.2 billion deficit to about $3 billion. That was possible even with a boost to K-12 education spending per pupil over the next 10 years to a level that's 15 percent over the national level, and increased spending for higher education and health. And I had a great time doing it.)

INFORMATION

Create your own version of the state budget at www.next-ten.org. Feedback is welcome.

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