Balancing Philadelphia's Budget is New Online ''Game,'' But No Game

March 23, 2009

John Ostapkovich,  KYW Newsradio

The Nutter administration and Philadelphia City Council are struggling with tough choices to be made in crafting a new, "tough times" budget.  

And now, you can, too -- in an online offering from the Economy League of Greater Philadelphia.

Closing a $200-million budget gap is no easy task, even for those who take part in the "Philadelphia Budget Challenge."  You can hike taxes and/or reduce services in many areas, and be apprised at every turn of how close you are coming to the break-even point.

Economy League executive director Steven Wray says this is a three-way exercise:

"To help people learn more about the city budget, and the second part was to make that learning experience fun, and then finally to also be able to collect some information about the choices people make."

Wray says the Challenge does not take a point of view on how to solve the crisis, but serves as a broad-based poll on the approaches people prefer.  

Nevertheless, I didn't manage to balance the budget first time through.  It appears modest changes don't quite add up to enough.

http://www.kyw1060.com/Balancing-Philadelphia-s-Budget-is-New-Online---…