MPR posts 2008 Minnesota Budget Balancer

Minnesota Public Radio has posted its 2007 Budget Balancer, and even though choices are limited — for example, survey takers can't fill in exact dollar mounts — it's still an impressive effort. There's no doubt that the Budget Balancer is an excellent way for Minnesota citizens to confront some of the same problems that legislators and the governor face when trying to bring fiscal sanity to the state.

The internet since its inception has been hailed as a means toward true citizen-participatory democracy. MPR's Budget Balancer not only allows Minnesotans to examine their priorities, but once they're done they can e-mail their representatives and the governor about where those priorities lie.

We ran several simulations to see how the Budget Balancer works. First, we took the default positions provided by MPR, which means no changes in funding or taxation levels from the previous budget. Then we selected an extreme cost-cutting, tax-minimizing position. Next, we chose an extreme position on the other end of the spectrum, calling for full funding of all programs and using maximum tax increases to pay for them.

Because this latter choice resulted in a deficit of more than $2.8 billion, we ran the same budget but eliminated all tax rebates, property tax relief and increases in local government aid. This still resulted in a smaller deficit of about $57 million.

Next, we looked at how Minnesotans who've taken the survey have filled it out. Surprisingly, they seem to be a conservative lot, because for 13 of the 23 items they advocated no change from the previous state budget.

The spending priorities they feel most strongly about are:

• Increasing K-12 funding: 80 percent agree that school funding should be increased by an average of almost $1.1 billion.
  
• Increasing pre-school education funding: More than 72 percent support an average increase of $100 million for pre-school education funding.
• Increasing health-care expenditures: 77 percent say that health-care spending should be raised by an average of nearly $283 million.
• Increasing long-term care expenditures: 59 percent want to see an average increase of $140 million for long-term care.
  
• Increasing student aid for higher education: 68 percent want student aid increased by about $90 million on the average.
  
• Increasing transportation spending: 74 percent want transportation spending to rise by an average of $125 million.
• Raising the budget reserve: Almost 64 percent say the state's budget reserve should be increased by an average of $275 million.
• Nixing any sort of tax rebates: More than 90 percent are opposed to returning money to taxpayers via rebates.
  
• Keeping personal income taxes about the same: More than 50 percent favor no change while 18 percent want the see taxes lowered and 32 percent want them raised.
• Making no changes in current sales taxes: About 9 percent want to pay less sales tax; 17 percent wouldn't mind paying more; 74 percent want them to stay the same.

Below is an abridged table of our results and how they compare with the governor's budget:

	Surplus or (deficit)	Agree with governor?
No change from previous budget	$2,163,013,000	26%
Minimize costs and reduce taxes	$2,483,013,000	9%
Provide full funding and offset with maximum tax increases	$(2,856,987,000)	4%
Provide full funding but allow no tax rebates, property tax relief or increase in local government aid; offset costs with maximum tax increases	$(56,987,000)	9%
If citizens chose the budget	$386,013,000	52%
Governor's budget	$8,013,000	100%

One caveat: E-mailing the governor and state legislators with the results of your survey can create some confusion on the other end. The drawback is that the program only allows users to e-mail their top five priorities. Yet the message that arrives does not state that limitation. For example, this is what arrived in my state representative's inbox:

I used Minnesota Public Radio's Budget Balancer to express my values, and ended up with a surplus of $25,013,000.

My priorities for the Minnesota state budget:

K-12 Education: Add $1.6 billion to K-12 education.

Pre-school: Add $200 million to pre-school.

Health Care: Add $500 million to state health-care coverage.

Agriculture & the Environment: Add $200 million to agriculture and the environment.

Budget Reserves: Add $50 million to budget reserves.

My state representative, who is also a good friend, e-mailed back right away asking why I had not listed increased funding for higher education, a passion that we both share. I assured her that I had done so on the survey; I just didn't list it among my top five priorities. (Note to MPR: An easy fix to the e-mail — "My top five priorities for the Minnesota state budget.")

So go ahead now. You too can muck with the state budget. The fun is only a couple of clicks away at mpr.org.