New Online Application Lets Users Balance the Budget
By Zach A. Williams June 28, 2009 | 5:46 pm
Posted in: State
With so much news traffic about the California budget, some readers might ask: just how hard is it to balance this deficit?
A new online application from the LA Times, titled “You balance the budget,” gives anyone the opportunity to close the state’s $24 billion shortfall.
You can increase taxes, cut programs, or propose a combination of the two.
To challenge yourself, try balancing the budget without raising taxes. In several statements issued last week, Governor Schwarzenegger said he would not sign off on a budget that includes tax increases. So, see if you can draft a budget that the governor would approve.
Senate democrats, including Pro Tem Darrel Steinberg (D-Sacramento), have been adamant about certain tax increases and protecting programs like CalWORKs and Cal Grants. They have proposed a 9.9 percent oil severance tax and increasing cigarette tax to raise revenue in a budget revision that would have saved the “safety net programs.”
That revision failed in the legislature, and was destined for a veto by the governor should it have passed.
