Sunday, April 24, 2011

Balance the Budget

Want to balance Michigan's budget, then go to the following link. http://www.thecenterformichigan.net/you-balance-the-state-budget/

This simulator allows you to make the tough choices. Once you're finished you can share your results with your friends. It gives you a look at the top five proposals in order of size and then shows you your top five proposals.
Do you think it is as easy as it looks?

9 comments:

  1. I wasnt able to balance the budget. Nothing on that budget proposal looked very appealing (especially the rise beer and wine tax). I will be interested to see what ends up being cut.

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  2. I cut about 2.3 billion! That was a super cool activity, I think it made me realize I support a pretty small government...

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  3. Crazy, this activity makes you really understand the difficult choices and how much more difficult it would be to put these into action.

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  4. I absolutely chose to"Adopt Gov. Snyder's Income Tax Reform: Broadens the base, lowers the rate. Taxes pensions of public and private workers." because taxes redistribute wealth to increase equity, fund public goods, and other societal needs. The ideal tax bases should be as broad as possible and tax rates should be low as possible to promote social welfare in the public’s interest of efficiency and equity.

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  5. I actually didn't have too much difficulty with it. I could not accept any cuts to education, as that will harm the long term health of the economy, but cuts to state worker pay and state police patrols, while painful, represent a commitment to streamlining old beaurcracies. Additionally, while sales taxes disproportionally affect low income citizens, they represent a commitment by everybody towards balancing our budget. I wish there was an option to raise general income or property taxes, especially on high income tax brackets, but this is doable regardless.

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  6. I really like the plan to broaden the tax base and lower the taxes. I also raised the beer tax. I wouldnt necessarily like it, but I wont stop drinking beer either. I think siphoning money from the K-12 fund is wrong, but i think that there has to be some concessions on the part of state workers.

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  7. Raising the sales tax on luxuries like carbonated beverages and beer was the easiest choice for me. Like Richard said, this will not mean major lifestyle changes or sacrifices for very many people, because it's only a few extra cents. However, I think a 15 percent cut to state universities would have a major impact on a lot of people. Tuition is already increasing on an annual basis, and further cuts would only increase those tuition hikes.

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  8. I was not able to balance the budget. The education cuts is what got me really stuck. If Snyder and policy makers did choose to cut education this has a crippling affect of the future potential of our economy. If less people are given the ability to receive a higher education, the less skill they will have and less opportunities to better the economy for the next generation. With my resistance to cut spending on education, I also did not want take money from health care pensions, government employees, or the workforce. The only thing left to do is raise taxes, and no one wants that. I’ll leave this job to the professions.

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  9. Very cool. Like a few other people seem to have done, I looked at education as totally off-limits. Good education is the foundation of everything else in twenty years and I simply could not justify taking any money away from it. The sales taxes are harder short term for sure, especially for people without much disposable income to begin with, but the only wise long term choice is promoting education.

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