Hey y'all: we've been invited to take the California Budget Challenge! WhooHoo!
A lot of us LA locals have written oodles on why these "budget challenge" surveys, such as Antonio's recent version, are a poor way to make decisions since they misrepresent the problems and the solutions. Rather than addressing California's fiscal problems at the root of the issues, instead the population is asked to prioritize what cuts to programs and services we will accept. As with any on-line survey, these are subject to the will of whichever special interest group can muster the biggest outrage, and hence the biggest turnout.
NextTen states that almost 200,000 have taken this challenge since 2005. It doesn't seem to have helped with the State's budget health in the following years much. On the plus side, it may get people thinking about budget issues who would not normally think about these things.
(corrected version: 3:29pm)
