Instructify

BY BILL FERRIS

Try your hand at balancing a state budget with the Colorado Backseat Budgeter, an online application from the Bighorn Leadership Development Program at Colorado State University. The Backseat Budgeter lets you decide how much to spend on health care, roads, education, social services and so forth, while raising or lowering tax rates to make up for budget shortfalls. In keeping with these hard economic times, the Backseat Budgeter starts you approximately $800 million in the hole.

To discourage students from simply making drastic spending cuts or tax increases in order to get a quick victory, The Backseat Budgeter explains the consequences of every financial decision — if you cut spending on higher education, some institutions may close. Want to raise taxes? Not without voter approval, buster. Think you can go a while longer without ponying up for highway repair? Plan on state roads crumbling into gravel.

While most Instructify readers live in states other than Colorado, trying to balance the budget of any state is a thought-provoking exercise. The Colorado Backseat Budgeter will give students an appreciation of the tough decisions our elected officials have to make to keep states running smoothly, as well as give them an idea of where tax money goes.

Colorado Backseat Budgeter