Balance the budget online (Philadelphia Inquirer/Heard in City Hall)

by Patrick Kerkstra

The Economy League of Greater Philadelphia has a new tool up that gives users the opportunity to try and balance the city's budget deficit on their own. You can find it here. It works a little like a digital version of the Penn/WHYY sponsored budget workshops of past weeks, which turned out to have a pretty significant influence on the mayor's proposed budget and five-year plan. The budget tool has some good information in it, with pro and con arguments for each spending cut / tax increase included in the exercise. On the other hand, the budget options available in the tool are fairly limited. It's a better fit for budget novices than budget geeks.

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