Bacon's Rebellion

Citizen Input Time!

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by

James A. Bacon
in

Citizens rarely get a chance to testify before the General Assembly budget committees. But a harmonic convergence of blogs with the new transparency in state budget reporting creates extraordinary opportunities. Now you can poke, prod and dissect the Fiscal 2007/2008 budget and tell the world what you think.

Bacon’s Rebellion will establish a thread for each of the secretariats, plus the groupings of independent and nonstate agencies, then link to the very reader-friendly summaries of each, and invite readers to comment.

Is the state spending too much? Too little? Spending it in the wrong place? Are we squandering funds on useless programs? Are we failing to invest in the future? Let us know.

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Comments

4 responses to “Citizen Input Time!”

  1. Steve Haner Avatar
    Steve Haner

    For some time the Governor has issued a summary with each 2-year budget, but obviously this is far more detailed and the charts are easier to follow. The hot new stuff are the objectives (One of the Gov’s first “objectives” is the AAA bond rating! Hmmmm)

    Reading the summary was always educational, because they did set out the new spending items, pay raises, new programs, transferred programs, etc — things you would never see in the budget bill. On first review it does seem much more detailed this time.

    I suspect a massive amount of staff time when into this, with some agencies taking it more seriously than others. If only a handful of folks actually read it, that will be a shame.

  2. Ben Avatar
    Ben

    I’ll comment until my heart’s content. Have already started in fact, but what good will it do? Will anyone read this who is in a position to act upon our suggestions? Are any of your readers in a postition to get our suggestions to those in power?

  3. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    Ben, you would be amazed at the number of legislators, political operatives, lobbyists and activists read this and other Virginia political blogs. If this experiment generates a significant level of citizen participation, I can assure you that people in a position of authority will pay attention.

  4. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    OK, I’m in favor of energy savings. I see something like $1.5 million in energy efficiency improvements to state buildings. Anyone hava an idea what the payback is?

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