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I've often thought that municipal or even state governments should make available an interactive budget tool for constituents using this kind of visualization.

I've often thought that municipal or even state governments should make available an interactive budget tool for constituents using this kind of visualization. The purpose would be to show that everything the gov't does is connected through incoming taxes and outgoing expenditures - and there are very tough choices when it comes to the direction of taxes.

stared 6y ago
There is a game about that Democracy 3 (https://www.positech.co.uk/democracy3/ https://www.positech.co.uk/democracy3/). I think it should be a mandatory exercise for any politician - and voter.
memexy 6y ago
This is a good idea. Why do you suppose they don't do it?
- LyndsySimon 6y ago
  Based on my own experience at local government meetings, I don’t think the knowledge is all in one place. The meeting I’m thinking of was the city council advocating extending a tax that was due to expire. They had a presentation deck full of the things they planned to use the money for. That’s all well and good, but when I raised my hand and asked what proportion of incoming revenue for the public works department and the overall city budget the tax currently made up... crickets. No one there knew exactly how much public works was allocated, because the director of public works. They had the overall city budget numbers handy, but no one there had a breakdown by source, and no one knew where to find that information.
  - memexy 6y ago
    I see. So they didn't even have the tools to gather the data in the first place it sounds like, let alone figure out how to put together a simulation for it.
rapsey 6y ago
It's not so simple. Governments run huge deficits and debt is the primary means of funding. Taxes are more of an inflation guard.
- Sambdala 6y ago
  They specified Municipal and/or State governments which cannot monetize a deficit.
op03 6y ago
Google Sankey diagrams Budgets. There are lots of tools - eg - https://github.com/ricklupton/floweaver https://github.com/ricklupton/floweaver, sankeymatic.com etc Not my area but complications in visualizing flows dramatically increase when the flows criss cross. Even small budgets start looking like chaotic weaving. Which I think is why we still have buildings full of accountants and analysts to make sense of what is going on even though lots of people have access to the data.

stared 6y ago

There is a game about that Democracy 3 (https://www.positech.co.uk/democracy3/ https://www.positech.co.uk/democracy3/). I think it should be a mandatory exercise for any politician - and voter.

memexy 6y ago

This is a good idea. Why do you suppose they don't do it?

LyndsySimon 6y ago
Based on my own experience at local government meetings, I don’t think the knowledge is all in one place. The meeting I’m thinking of was the city council advocating extending a tax that was due to expire. They had a presentation deck full of the things they planned to use the money for. That’s all well and good, but when I raised my hand and asked what proportion of incoming revenue for the public works department and the overall city budget the tax currently made up... crickets. No one there knew exactly how much public works was allocated, because the director of public works. They had the overall city budget numbers handy, but no one there had a breakdown by source, and no one knew where to find that information.
- memexy 6y ago
  I see. So they didn't even have the tools to gather the data in the first place it sounds like, let alone figure out how to put together a simulation for it.

rapsey 6y ago

It's not so simple. Governments run huge deficits and debt is the primary means of funding. Taxes are more of an inflation guard.

Sambdala 6y ago
They specified Municipal and/or State governments which cannot monetize a deficit.

op03 6y ago

Google Sankey diagrams Budgets. There are lots of tools - eg - https://github.com/ricklupton/floweaver https://github.com/ricklupton/floweaver, sankeymatic.com etc Not my area but complications in visualizing flows dramatically increase when the flows criss cross. Even small budgets start looking like chaotic weaving. Which I think is why we still have buildings full of accountants and analysts to make sense of what is going on even though lots of people have access to the data.