Residents Try Balancing Budget

Using pocket calculators and felttipped pens, 40 Spokane residents tried to balance the state budget in two hours Saturday afternoon.

What happened in a meeting room at the Spokane Public Library was remarkably similar to the legislative process, said Rep. Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, who set up the educational exercise.

“It sounded just like the Senate Ways and Means Committee. I’m not kidding,” said Brown, referring to one group’s arguments.

The exercise - in which five groups of eight each tried to balance a general operating budget - was timely considering the state House of Representatives passed the budget at 4 a.m. Saturday.

At the library, each group was given three choices. They could cut the budget and spend the savings on different programs, cut and provide tax relief or do a little of both. Each group was given a list of programs to cut or fund.

“I learned one thing about this exercise. It’s hard,” said community college student Raynor Smith, 24. Others in the rooms echoed Smith’s sentiment, saying they’d gained increased respect for their legislators.

After two hours, most of the groups were hurriedly searching through their booklets for deserving programs to fund with all the money they’d saved cutting. Brown told one group if they didn’t wrap it up quickly, the extra session would cost the taxpayers more money.

Popular on the chopping block were cuts in higher education administration and athletics, benefits for state employees and funding for the governor’s office.

Among programs funded: higher education grants, child-care assistance and services for at-risk youth.

Brown said the decisions made by the groups mirrored some of what happens in Olympia. For example, much of the budget goes to education, she said.

One woman said she felt she didn’t have enough knowledge of the issues to decide whether to cut a program or fund it.

How can you become an expert on so many issues, she asked Brown. Lobbyists and others flood the office with information on every issue, Brown responded. But, she added, you have to learn who are the reliable sources of information.

One group was so eager to spend the limited savings made from budget cuts, its members never got around to giving any tax breaks.

“We didn’t have time to look at tax relief because the money was gone,” said the group’s spokeswoman.