Games

The Budget Table

Fund everything. You can't. Now choose.

Skill this builds: Calculate trade-offs in a public budget under fixed revenue and legally required minimums, and explain which service absorbed the cut.
About: About 10 minutes · Standards: C3, NCTM, CCSS · Plays offline

You have a fixed amount to spend per resident. Every category has a floor it cannot go below. Balance to the dollar. Then a shortfall hits, and you do it again.

Modeled — not sourced

MODELED — NOT SOURCED. The city in this exercise is invented, and the dollar figures are a teaching model, not any real city's budget. The category structure and the fact that debt service and pension contributions are largely non-discretionary are real, and are sourced below.

Round 1 — the ordinary year

Round 1 of 2

Revenue came in as projected. Fund the year.

Revenue: $700 $ per resident

Allocated: $580

$120 unallocated

Walk to a desk. Every line opens at its legal minimum.

The point

Two things worth taking away. First: a large share of any public budget is inherited obligation, not current choice. Second: every dollar is a statement of priority, and it is public — you can go read your own city's adopted budget tonight. Search your city's name plus 'adopted budget PDF.'