Sorry folks, you're going to need a real computer for this one. Your phone won't be able to handle the link. Go to this website for Adobe Flashplayer if you have trouble with it. And even though there is no school on Monday, it is still due on Wednesday.
California is facing a $27.6 billion deficit over the next 18 months. The single largest area of spending is K-12, community college, CSU, and UC education. Click on this link here to balance the state of California's budget with a gadget provided by the Sacramento Bee. Right click on it and choose to open it as a new tab or window, so you can reference this page as well.
Your assignment is to go through all of the spending categories and choose which ones to cut. Once you've done this, answer the questions below. Go ahead and answer them in narrative form (meaning write it as a paragraph) and address those questions that were the most relevant to how you thought and felt about this exercise. Good luck.
How easy or hard did you find it to balance the budget?
What was easy for you to cut? Were there any cuts you made that were difficult for you? Which ones?
What did you think of Governor Brown's proposals? Did they go too far or not far enough? Why?
Did you need to raise taxes to balance the budet (those were the ones that added revenue)?
Which taxes, if any, were you most comfortable raising?
If everything you chose actually happened, what would be the effect on California? Show you understand the costs of your decisions.
Since overall, this was a fairly easy exercise in balancing the budget, why do you think our government has such a hard time doing it? Think about your answer.
The California Government really has its hands full this year, and Brown's plans seem pretty harsh. It was tough to balance the budget; trying to make everyone happy while cutting some programs. The MediCal cut was tough and so was the California University plans. Brown's plan proposal went a little far at some points, eliminating entire programs or cutting substantial money from things like welfare. No I did not need to raise taxes because Californians are already being taxed pretty high compared to recent years. I was able to completely eliminate the deficit, but a lot of sacrifices were made and major programs would be cut from money. Things like clicking on a button that changes the deficit is not nearly as close to what it is like in the real world, I'm sure. They need to put into consideration all of the people the cuts affect which includes very hard decisions.
ReplyDeleteIt was pretty hard to balance the budget of California.It was easy to cut because most of the things I cut off were really important.Yes i had to raise the taxes to cut the budget which is not really good because this upsets the people because California taxes are already really high. I think that more money should be given to the schools like or aid because we are suffering pretty bad right now.
ReplyDeleteJaskiran Kaur
Mr. Bauer
Period 2
Government
I found it pretty hard to balance out the budget. Anything that contributed money into schooling was easy for me to cut. Anything that made cuts in benefits of insurance was hard for me. I really believe the Governor's decisions are what have to be done. We are in a big hole right now and if changes are not made then we are going to have problems in the future. I did not need to raise taxes though because we are already being taxed high enough in my opinion. If everything I chose actually went through, California would almost have its' debt paid off. This is very easy compared to what happens in reality because we only have to look at our own opinions, and we do not have to take in the opinions of other people. Like the Governor has to. and btw. This is the hardest blog we have had all year..maybe it's because I actually had to try haha.
ReplyDeleteI found it difficult to balance the budget. I found it was difficult to make cuts in education and easy to increase taxes on businesses. I found it easy to make cuts to the prisons. Reelection is what matters most to our legislators and therefor do not cut efficently on excessive programs. They don't raise taxes on the coorporations or wealthy because most are from that department. I made about halt of what brown has proposed because i refused to make cuts on education. I believe some of browns tax cuts are going to far.
ReplyDeletePeriod 4
Mr. Bauer
Balancing the budget was very challenging because a lot of it had to be really thought about. Easy for me to cut was actually not a lot it was all challenging. Browns proposals were really a shock actually, all the proposals there were a shock i do think they all went too far. Taxes i was comfortable raising was the alcohol drink raised a dime. If everything i chose actually happened i thick our state would still be the same, nothing would have actually changed. This exercise wasn't FAIRLY easy it all had to been thought of carefully and i can understand why the government has a hard time.
ReplyDeleteAdilene Vazquez
Sloan period onee
It was extremely challenging for me to balance the budget because the majority of these cuts are essential for the future. Some of cuts that made it easy for me was to increase alcohol taxes by a time a drink, create oil severance tax at 9.9 percent levy on the oil extract from California, cut all state funding for country fairs, close state parks and take away preschool. I think that Browns proposals should be done because he have to face this deficit. Yes i had to raise taxes to balance the budget. Well this was not a fairly easy exercise in balancing the budget. I actually do understand how hard it is for our government to make these decisions.
ReplyDeleteTo cut back on spending the state should cut back on unworthy spending, college education rates, militatry spending etc...
ReplyDeleteIt was very difficult to balance the budget, if you cut too much from one area, another area gets way too much. Or some areas don't get much money to spend, I believe that balancing the budget in California is very difficult, especially because there are some areas that deserve a lot of money, but it is impossible to give every area what it needs. The majority of the cuts have to be done to things that will carry on into the future, such as education. Overall, its a difficult task, but it needs to be done.
ReplyDeleteStephanie Romero
Period 3
Bauer
I think the hardest part of the budget is keeping the people happy. No matter what Governor Brown does someone will be unhappy. Sacrafices need to be made on all ends, but if taxes are raised any more people will emmigrate from the state.
ReplyDeleteDeciding what to cut and hat to raise taxes was more difficult than i expected, after the first time going through i only cut the budget in a forth. I did not cut any money for the school systems and i choose many revenues that would save money and also give some money to the school systems. I also increased the tax on alcohol and some services and exempted items. Some of Brown's proposed cut seemed a bit drastic to me.
ReplyDeleteit was difficult to balance the buget because i was trying to save money for the economy. I didnt like Governer Brown's plan of eliminating all general fund support for csu and UC's because then the students would have to pay for school on thier own with out help.I did like browns plan on community colleges becasue it saves money and wont cost the studen alot.laying off ten thousand employees is enough because i didnt want to take too many jobs away. I did need to raise the taxes a little because i didnt want to cut too many programs.I saved 1.92 billion and revenue raised.
ReplyDeleteClarisa Carrillo
Per.4
Sloan
It was hard for me to balance the budget,you have to make good decisions that will help now and in the future.I cut down the Uc's General Fund budget 13percent and CSU's by 15 percent,it will save us money not alot but its something.
ReplyDeleteSome of Browns cuts were kinda big but hes just trying to help our budget.There was many cuts that were really difficult to make because there would be more tax payimg and the people arent going to be happy since its high enuff.
tania hinojosa
sloan.5
Out government is too large. to remove the deficit, you would need to cut almost all options. I was able to reach a surplus by cutting everything i saw in sight. I did not care if it was hard or easy to cut it, i just did. Why? Because of we want to live within our means, we spend less. If you want to have a balance budget, then be prepared to cut a lot. Stop buying what you can't afford.
ReplyDeleteMY cuts would not work because everyone is accustomed to having more than they can afford. Everyone wants their gifts from the government, despite the cost. Most people who live here are in dept and live in dept. Why does it make since that our government would do anything different than what we do our self? To be rid of our dept, our nations has to go under a culture turn around, and wake up.
I did not raise revenues. Because i want a cool toy, can i demand a raise from my boss? More money to the government is not the answer. There is never enough money. It would just cause the problem to grow.
Caleb Newman
KARINA RAMOS MRSLOAN PERIOD 1
ReplyDeletethis was a difficult task to do. because i was trying to save more and more money but i didnt want to cut aid for schools and add higher taxes because we already have high taxtes!:P
this was my goal to reach that lower deficit.i saved and reached $31.24 billion and revenue raised.this shows that the goevernment has a really hard task to do.its kinda confusing.
each cut on any budget is a scrafice but to a limit. Theres a point that we are blowing money in the air and not picking it up and there blowing money but with conrtol on what is a NESSECARY WASTE.
ReplyDeleteRENE BONILLA
BAUER
AP GOV.
The more money you want to save somewhere the other side loses, not everyone wins, there has to be compromise.
ReplyDeletevern iniguez
SLOAN
p1
I think for him to make changes must be very difficult because he has to be thinking about how is affecting other people .I raised taxes and it helped out very little but some times you just have to make hard decisions i didnt want to cut heath care and school because it was what every one needed the most over all it a hard task
ReplyDeleteRicardo Villalpando
sloan pr5
I honestly cut everything and I only saved 7 million dollars. It seems that nothing would work even letting all the prisoners out. Just to see. I don't think that raising taxes would do any good either.
ReplyDeleteTori Milligan
Sloan Per.3
I was hard because i care about various issues and i had to choose some of the harsher cuts to get the budget balanced. It was hard for me to cut some of the funding for colleges, because i'm going to one next year and also continuing the tax increase. However it was easy for me to add an alchol tax and cut some government funds, along with putting money for Casinos into the general fund. Almost everyone would be unhappy with one thing, because while i tried not to cut too much from each catagory, it was impossible and i think mainly corporations will be displeased with my cuts and added taxes. It is hard for the government because they have to get relected and also they must weight their decisions because one bad decision can cause CA to go into an even deeper recession.
ReplyDeleteMaria Perez
ReplyDeleteSloan Per:4
I found it easy to balance the budget, because I chose the things that were not so necessary for the state of California. Some easy things that were easy to cut were like extra paying for extra work. Some difficult things to cut were like college financial aid because everyone needs help with the payment of their college. I believe that some of Governor Brown's proposals are not so beneficial for the people living in California, because he wants to cut money on work, like the care givers, and I believe he went far enough in all this, because care givers are employers that also deserve to be paid. I did need to raise taxes to improve the problem. Some taxes I raised were like school things, the cost in some classes. If everything I changed would become true, it would improve California by billions of dollars, 6 billion or more to be more accurate. I believe that the government has a hard time deciding on what to cut or reduce because they have to think on the greater good of the U.S., and not only on one state, plus also each state has different laws.
It was actually very hard to balance the budget. What was easy for me to cut was for example the alcohol taxes, which would raise money for the schools which is good. I did not want to cut anything that had to do with education, because education is very important. I now see how hard it must be to try to balance the budget out. But sacrafices have to be made, and it has to be done.
ReplyDeleteMelissa Quezada
Mr. Bauer
P.2
It was very hard to cut things such as the welfare section. i can under stant now what polaticians go through to try to find a way to help the economy and the people.
ReplyDeleteMonica salazar
mr.sloan
p.4
The cuts to assist fixing the California budget were difficult for me to make. Generally I tended to agree with Brown's proposed cuts. The most difficult cuts for me to make involved university educational functioning since I will be going into college in the fall and those cuts would ultimately affect me and my class. This exercise helped to put into perspective how difficult it is for the government to make budget cuts.
ReplyDeleteDevin Smith, Mr. Bauer, P.1.
I had a hard time trying to balance the budget. I had a dificult time trying to decide what school related things to cut. For the first few, I was agreeing with what Brown had proposed mostly because I am a soon to be college student and I want to have the best opportunities possible.
ReplyDeletei had a hard time making the money go down. All of the choices were so hard to check. Especially the one about letting people out of prison, and welfare. But something has to be done and it will be difficult in the real world.
ReplyDeleteGary Vasquez
ReplyDeleteMr. Bauer Per. 3rd
Well, well, well, I guess it really is true after all money does really make the world go round... In the Case of California and its deficit well it would be wise to say fix it. But that's not the question the question is why if California doesn't gets its head on str8 then we all are in a world trouble coming our way. Pretty soon we (California) will end up like China everything price will skyrocket and all the prices will cause inflation. And the economy since it isn't too good right now will get even worse.
Balancing the budget for California must be the ultimate challenge. Brown had a hard time with it,but i agree with his proposal. It's hard since i plan to attend a CSU and i know that it will effect me and my fellow classmates attending uc's csu's and jc's.
ReplyDeleteFran
bauer
i found it somewhat hard to balance the budget. cutting anything or increasing anything could cause a lot of tension between people. cutting college finances was really hard for me because education is so important. i raised some taxes because i think you have to in order to get out of the deficit. yes it may upset people, but it needs to be done. i think our government has such a hard time balancing the budget because they have to think about the people's opinions. they may make the people mad to a certain extent, but they need to know where the line is.
ReplyDeleteThe budget was pretty hard to balance. It was hard to cut a lot, especially MediCal and some education things. I tried to raise taxes, but I know they tend to be tedious to deal with. Yes, I realize this will upset people, but there is a hard time ahead so not everyone will be pleased. The government probably has a difficult time balancing the budget because of worrying about re-election and worrying about what the people want.
ReplyDeletei found the balancing to be difficult, alot of tough decisions have to be made, but i find my self identifying alot with Brown's proposals. easy cuts were the funding of children of illegal immigrants. difficult cuts for me were the park and library cuts. i think most of brown's proposals are spot on. i was most comfortable raising taxes on school food. if my budget actually went into effect, California would have at least a 6 billion surplus. the governor has a hard time balancing the budget because he must also balance the support of his constituents.
ReplyDeleteI still had a 4 billion deficit upon my first arrival at the bottom of the California budget page. However, going back through I was able to ABOLISH the deficit just by a click of a mouse. If only it were that simple, in reality. I realize its much easier for me to click and raise taxes on people, because my action isn't actually raising taxes. Governor Brown is not being harsh, he's just being a realist. We need to save money and there needs to be sacrifices. Pure and simple. We need to stop providing so much money to prison inmates. The fact that we spend more on a criminal than an average citizen makes is a bit ridiculous. In all honesty, we don't need state funds going into county fairs. That was one that stood out as easily slashable. I raised taxes on alcohol in a heartbeat, and purposed for the cameras in the assistance in capturing traffic violators. So yeah, down with the deficit!
ReplyDeleteMarklin Nixon
Mr. Sloan Economics Per. 1
It was easy for me to balance the budget. All I had to do was rid of these helping everyone bills that try to fight natural selection. Sure these bills that put money toward mental health, prison healthcare, and illegal immigration kids are great to have if we had the money but the truth is we don't. I found that Brown's proposals were good and some didn't even cut far enough. And hey, under my budget no new taxes were made so the contributers of the system would be happy. I think the only effect this budget would have on california would be that the governor, myself, would be shot for being so radical and uncaring becuase under my budget people would actually have to get off their butts and survive on their own.
ReplyDeleteI found that cutting some things were easy but others were more difficult. It seemed that any budget cut that gave money to the school system was easy for me but that may be because im a student. Also putting taxes on the upper class was easy because im not rich and dont have that kind of money.
ReplyDeleteTheres no easy way to balance a budget, period. Things will be cut, while other things wont. We have to keep in mind the aftermath, in the near future. Overall, I found it quite difficult in my attempts to balance the budget. However making cuts to things deemed necessary was absolutely easy. & anything that pertained to education, I did not cut any money.
ReplyDeletebalancing a budget is never easy, especially that of california's stature.I believe that we should spend the most money on education,you cause im gonna be a student for at least another four years. The budget makers are all bias and only create budgets that are good for just their ideas, and not the entire state.
ReplyDeleteits real annoying.
i agree with steven, people need to get get u and make money, there are always jobs available, people just dont look hard enough.
rebecca miles
bauer p. 4 ap
It's not easy to balance a budget, but if everyone just gave up a little bit, the problem would be at least a little better. The problem is that a budget will never be fixed unless everyone compromises and works together. The government seems to have a hard time doing that. I'd say cut some state workers jobs. A lot of them don't need those jobs, they aren't doing much. Plus they get way too many benefits. That'd be a good place to start fixing the budget, at least a little bit.
ReplyDeleteI found it extremely easy to fix the budget, in fact I ended up with a 4 billion dollar surplus! I did have to cut some things, but the main thing that I did was raise taxes. I am not afraid to raise taxes, and because of this I did not have to cut any of the disabled funding, or medical funding. I didn't want to cut any funding to prisons, and in the end I did not have to. The only things that I kind of worry about is that I cut 1/5 of the state workers, and I raised fees for community college. I did this because I had to, but I actually have enough surplus to let all of the state workers come back, but I would cut them any way, and then offer them their jobs back next year once we have saved 2.8 billion dollars. I also maybe could reduce prices for community colleges, but I believe that they are already too cheap, even after the $20 price increase per unit. Instead I would lower prices for the CSU and UC schools by using some of the excess money to stop all of the money thsat is being wasted on saleries for the heads of the UC system, and getting rid of any other form of waste in our college system. I completlely agree with Jerry Brown because he is a complete genius and he knows what he can do and what he can't, as unlike me he cannot just do whatever he wants. Unfortunately he has a legislative branch full of people who will stand in the way of a surplus.
ReplyDeleteBauer per. 1
Sloan per. 3
I found it exceptionally hard to balance the budget, especially in the education category, because being a college bound student, I could see the immediate effects of any change made. It's really simple to solve a budget crisis on an app for a computer, but once the changes become real and people see the altering affects that everything has, they will not think it to be so easy. I would not want to be Governor of California right now.
ReplyDeleteIt gave me a hard to balance the budget, But I think they should just cut a little bit of everything. and maybe that could save a little even though the state budget is too high.
ReplyDeleteSania Bacha
Bauer
P.3
It was actually pretty easy to fix the budget. I cut back on some things like state funding for county fairs and also on the health care at prisons. It's only 5% so it doesnt really make a big difference. I raised taxes on food because our school needs that money. Theres many things we can cut back to help the budget so I don't know how it's difficult for the government to do so. I mean some of the cuts don't affect us much but do fix the budget at least a little.
ReplyDeleteI think that Brown is trying to cut out some things that are necessarily the wrong things to be removed. he skips over important parts such as the illegal mothers that come to are country and have kids just so they can come too and from the USA as they wish. I think we should cut off their funding instead of cutting back of JC's. Brown is trying to reason with the liberals in California and not cutting back on the correct funding. In the charts, I cut back on giving money to all illegal members of the USA, including the ones with children that were born here.
ReplyDeleteI found it complicated to balance the budget.
ReplyDeleteThe easy things for me to cut were those about prisons and stuff of that sort, such as health care at prisons. The more difficult things I had to cut were those on education and raising taxes.I didn't agree to much with Governor Brown's proposals one of the main reasons he's proposing to cut back money from education.
Yes,I did need to raise taxes, I didn't want to but I had to. California budget would be doing fine but not California living, if the things I did actually happened. I believe that our government has such hard time fixing budgets because they don't want to upset people and also because they want to be looked at in a good way by voters.
-Ivan Cardenas
Mr. Sloan Per. 3
I found it very difficult to balance the state budget. My main goal was to not raise taxes and instead take away from the welfare system. Unfortunately, some of Brown's proposals seem ineviatble such as cuts to colleges and education. Another big target for me was eliminating aid to children of illegal US Immigrants. To some this may seem cruel but I view the subject entirely differently. I made tough decisions but feel that the solutions I chose would keep taxes down, and create more jobs without hurting current companies and small businesses.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was doing this, I saw that a lot of the cuts were being aimed at education. This is the last thing that should be cut back, and if anything we should increase spending on California's education. Cutting education might solve the problem today but will have dire consequences in the future.
ReplyDeleteSloan Per. 3
Bauer Per. 4
In my opinion it was difficult to balance the budget, partially because I couldn't understand some things and also because a lot of the options would cause people to either lose jobs or money support. The cuts that involved government spending or income of government jobs were easy for me, but cuts that involved firing a certain amount of people was difficult. I think some of Brown's proposals were too harsh because they took government support away from those who really do need it to survive. I increased taxes on alcohol and corporate tax rates. In California, some objects would have a higher price on them and schools would get a little more money to allow those with little money to still get a high enough education to go after their dreams. These arguments are not so easy to decide on because you have to see what's fair for both sides and there is definitely a lot of gray areas to each decision.
ReplyDeleteMelody Morphis
Mr. Sloan
per. 1
Im going to act just like the government. The hardest part is to keep the people happy , but hey you dont like California you truly dont have to live here boo boo , be go ahead move to north or south dakota they need some entertainment.Jodan Elzie per 2 sloan
ReplyDeleteThere were many things I easily cut because to me they weren't needed or they were a crutch to certain people. But even so it was still kinda hard to balance the budget and our deficit is just so big. I cut back on funding for like welfare and illegal immigrants because it's like a crutch. I did like most of Browns proposals though.
ReplyDeleteIt will be hard for California to get completely rid of its budget. It was hard deciding what to cut. I didnt really cut any funding to schools or colleges because I think it is important to keep schools funded.
ReplyDeleteBalancing a budget is extremely difficult because, in the end, we would rather make everyone happy. However, this is an impossible task, and some things need to be sacrificed. Although no one likes taxes, they are definitely necessary to erase a budget deficit. I agreed with most of Brown's decisions on what to cut and what taxes to raise. It seems that he has taken a moderate approach on all of the areas that could be changed, and I believe his solution is a very smart one for California.
ReplyDeleteCaleb Boyd
Mr. Sloan
Per. 2
Start with eliminating Prop 13, Leave education, Medical, Fire and transportation alone. Tax and legalize Marijuana for medical and limited recreational use.Clear and release non-violet pot related prisoners and shut down somethe of prisons. With out new tactics california will never be able settle its MASSIVE debts.
ReplyDeleteJacob Beilby
sloan per 1
To get rid of California's budget will be a difficult task. Taxes are actually needed for our economy to flow correctly and efficiently. They just need to be in the correct ammount. Brown's decisions were good for the most part.
ReplyDeleteI though it was really hard to decide on mostly all of them because it involves alot of things people depend on. for this case i believe Brown is being heartless because many would not manage to live without certain services and would just make it more difficult for our population currently suffering. i would mainly take alchol, cigerates and luxury cars for exapmple things we really dont need to get a bit of funds instead.
ReplyDeleteIt was very hard to balance the budget and determining what to cut. It was difficult to cut budgets on education as well as those for stste workers. I overall agree with Brown's proposals because things have to get cut, no matter what. Yes, I raised taxes for the purchase of alcohol because this is not a necessity. With my cuts, workers would be laid off and people would not be happy. Our government has a hard time balancing the budget because it wants to help everyone, but this is at a cost.
ReplyDeleteIt was really difficult to try and balance the budget.It was easy to cut some things because they don't apply to me at the moment but cutting into college fees and money that goes to college was hard to do.I think Governor Brown's proposals were in the middle of the other options given.It seems he was making taxes and taking money but not as much as the other suggestions.If everything i chose happened,some people would be mad but others might agree on the decisions made.I believe the government can't do it because its not as easy as this exercise,props have to be passed and mostly everyone has to agree on it.
ReplyDeleteJose Alvarez p4 Sloan
Balancing the budget was difficult because the state deficit has gotten out of control. The best solution is to viciously attack the debt asap, however, this requires that many sacrifices be made. Hopefully the budget will be balanced in the near future and hopefully California will begin operating within its means so that we do not find ourselves in such a crisis again.
ReplyDeleteI found it difficult to balance the budget. It was easy to cut from illegal immigrats, juvenile, prisons and general government. The cuts that were difficult to make were cutting from the colleges and inhome services. Yes taxes needed to be raised to balance the budget. I was most comfortable with raising the alcohol taxes. If everything I chose actually happened, I think that unemployment would rise in California. More people would struggle financially. Disabledpeople would be less supported. And it would be harder to attend college with the rising fees. The budget would be balanced yes, overfall good for the people would be horrible. I think the government has such a hard time balancing the budget because a lot of changes would have to be made that the peple would hae a hard tome adjustig to, and the government is suppose to do what's good for the people and some of the solutions are not good for the people.
ReplyDeleteSloan p.2
It was difficult to balance the budget because no matter what you do some group of people is going to be dissatisfied. There is no way to please everyone, if you raise taxes to decrease the deficit people only look at the short term effect - they pay more. It was difficult to cut funding for education because although I am almost through the system, my little nieces still have to get their educations. I had no problem raising taxes and cutting gov spending. Most of Brown's proposals were decent and I could live with them, he seems to have a pretty good grasp on how we will be able to function.
ReplyDeleteWow, that was really difficult. I had to go through about three times to keep cutting programs that I really didn't want to cut. I really didn't like cutting welfare programs or education funding, but it helped to balance the budget. I didn't like most of Brown's proposals and saw them as going too far, but I realized that some of them were necessary to help the economy, even if they don't always make everyone happy. I can see why it's hard to balance the budget, trying to satisfy the most people and stand up for certain programs, yet still trying to help the economy as a whole with so many cuts. Bauer/Sloan
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to cut the deficit no matter how much you cut/increase spending and/or lower/raise taxes. However, the economy is more than just taxes and spending. To truly fix the budget deficit, Brown will have to make some more progressive changes. California has always been the state of innovation, so isn't it about time the state innovates its budget beyond the areas of taxes and spending?
ReplyDeleteConner Woods Bauer
I think this was very hard for me to decide what to cut and what not to. Either way there will be opposition and people will not be happy. I think Gov Jerry Brown has got it in for a very hard work load this year.
ReplyDeleteBalancing the budget wasn’t too difficult. If we can send a man to the moon using analog systems and slide rules, we can solve California’s budget crisis. Cut government welfare programs, lay-off state employees, and eliminate extraneous government expenditures. All of these actions will make California the prosperous state it once was.
ReplyDelete(Sloan P.3/Bauer P.4)
i think it was hard cuz the stuff thatr i thought was better to get rid of seemed to barely make a difference and it was hard to sacrafice the stuuf i relly didnt want to get rid off. yes i had to raise taxes on some things even though i dont like the whole tax stuff it has to be done to get money. i can see why it would be hard for the government cuz they have to decide what to sacrife and they are always ganna have people unhappy about something.
ReplyDeleteerika oropeza
mr.sloan
p.4
I found it very difficult to balance the budget. It wasn't easy for me to cut a lot of the choices, such as choices that includes disabilities and illegal immigrants. I didn't like a lot of Governor Brown's proposals, but a few of them were okay. I try to not raise any taxes to balance the budget, so that was another hard decision. If everything I chose actually happened, I don't think California would be in a good place, just because I don't really know how the economy really is, and more or less, just hear about it. I now realize how hard it must be for the government to balance the budget because of the opportunity cost of giving up one for the other.
ReplyDeleteChrissy Vue
Sloan
Period 3
Cutting the state budget was rather difficult however it was only hard due to the options gven by sacramento Bee. I did agree with several of Brown's policies however most of them i disagreed with because of who he was going to take money from.
ReplyDeleteCutting the budget was hard because there is still many people who will not be happy with the decisions in the end. There is a few ways to get the state back to what it used to be, but i dont think that cutting educational budgets is the best way to do so.
ReplyDeletevictor alvarez
sloan
It was fairly difficult to balance the budget, I couldn’t even decide what to cut for the college funds; It’s already challenging to pay for an education, why make it more so. Same with the Medi Cal. A lot of these budgets are difficult to cut them the way Brown is wishing to cut them. I can’t say that I agree with Brown’s proposals. It’s bad enough that the economy is so terrible that a voluminous majority of CA citizens are struggling to get through the day. I can understand that it will help bring us out of our deficit, but there has got to be a better approach to this proposal than the one he is suggesting. And don’t ask my opinion, because the decisions before me on the screen are not to my interest. I did raise a few taxes to balance out the budget. I was comfortable raising the taxes on the consumption of alcohol to ten cents a drink. If everything happened to the way I managed the budget, then I think things would go well. Schools would get a great deal of income and possibly stop the amount of drunk drivers on the road since the prices have risen ten cents, although not so sure about the tax payers… Our government has such a hard time creating and balancing the budget, because they have to consider the type of affects it will have on the people, and like I stated earlier, we’re already in a slump in the economy making it difficult for the majority of CA citizens to even make it day to day. It’s difficult for that reason, but also, it’s difficult because we have to crawl ourselves out of this deficit we’re in, which means that we can’t always consider what the people want, but what’s best for the state. If that makes any sense.
ReplyDeleteIt was not easy to balance the budget. I can see that there are many ways to balance the budget, but tough decisions need to be made. it was difficult for me to cut from illegal immigrants kids (its not the kids fault so why do they get punished?), welfare, and the elderly. i do not think that brown should be cutting so much money from the schools. He is reducing human capital and making it harder for california to experience progress. also, he is really going to increase taxes on sales, income, and vehicles? They already tax those areas too much. And he wants to reduce firefighter staffing levels to those in 2003?! Why is the government always trying to cut from the police and fire departments?! when someone has an emergency, who do they call? and if you cut their staffing levels and budgets so they don't have up to date technology and working gear, then how are they supposed to help you? How can they even get to you if their staffing is so low that their response time is lowered as well? The census in 2000 showed california to have a population of 33,871,648. From the 2010 census, California is shown to have 308,745,538 people in our state. That is 10x more than 10 years ago! And Brown wants to go back to 2003 staffing levels? This may save money but it is defiantely not saving lives. Opportunity cost. What is more important? Money? Or millions of peoples lives? Its time to cut money from the shirts.
ReplyDeleteIt is easy to reduce the budget just choose the choices that save the most money, however balancing the budget is not the hard part, balancing the budget while keeping people happy is. Brown's proposals seem to go as far as they can without having a public outcry. People would probably be unhappy with less medical aid, more taxes, and less money for schools. People know that the budget is a problem, but are not willing to sacrifice some things to fix it.
ReplyDeleteI found it hard to balance the budget, because half of the information I had to google for clarity and the rest was all things that seemed necessary. The easiest thing for me to cut would have had to have been government spending in general. The most difficult thing to cut would have been something along the lines of medical care and child care. Governor Brown's proposals may seem extreme to some, while others may be in favor of them. Persoanlly, I feel that at least he's trying to do something that would better California. I don't believe that they went to far with the proposals because they are just ideas, nothing is certain. There is always room for improvement. Yes, I had to raise taxes to balance the budget. The taxes that I felt most comfortable raising would have been the taxes of state employees as well as the court systems. I guess if everything I chose were to actually affect California, we would have lost many things that we may have still helped certain individuals. Balancing the budget is a hard concept to grasp, as many things need to be taken into consideration. Not only do the proposals have to be efficient, but they also have to benefit the people of California.
ReplyDeletejacob farrar
ReplyDeletebauer 4th
I found it very hard to balance the budget. There where so many things and we kind of need them all. i raised tax's some and cut some of the could be unessesary things. I think Governor brown had just a proposal. there is many ways to do this, and many opinions about it. I feel that if we want to keep alot of the things we like we must raise the taxes, unless we aqre willing to sacrafice and area in our school budget. I think the government has a hard time doing this becuse there is so many people who have a say in what goes on. Sure it is easy for one person to make a choice for themself. but when it is a group of people making a choice for millions of people, they have to take everything into disition, and still some people arn't happy.
It was really hard to balance the budget. None of the cuts were easy. I did not make any cuts in education. I mostly made cuts in things that i feel have no direct relation to me. I think tht Brown's proposals are good; out of all the options they seemed the most reasonable, they were effective but not too drastic. I did need to raise tacxes; i found it easier to raise taxes on businesses. If my choices werereally applied, people would be mad; this is probably why it is hard to decide on a budget, politicians want to please everyone.
ReplyDeleteOmar Hoyos
I think that its always going to be tought to cut things and balance the budget but this year i think it will be exceptionally hard to do. What i tried to do is cut things that would save alot but not effect too many people. its also in the eyes of whos cutting the budjet because it would be hard for me to cut a university budjet because i am starting college in the fall but it would easy for me to cut something that didnt apply to me at all.
ReplyDeleteSteffanie Eisenga
Sloan
Per.5
balancing a budget is thoroughly unenjoyable. no matter what we do, it is impossible to satisfy everybody's wants.it is necessary for everybody to realize that when we are in a situation like this, everybody has to make equal sacrifices. only keep the absolute necessities.
ReplyDeleteOkay balancing California's budget is quite impossible. It requires cutting A LOT of programs that we still need! I had to cut a lot of education, something that is much needed, and a lot of people would lose their jobs if my proposals had to go through. I am worried about our massive deficit and hope that it won't end up as bad as it sounds, because even Brown's more modest proposals sound pretty bad.
ReplyDeleteTHe budget was really hard to try and solve. Virtually imposable without making one group angry because their funding was extremely minimal. Raising taxes is essential to the problem. I am not sure the exact ones but I did. I believe Governor Brown will do his best efforts in eliminating the deficit.
ReplyDeleteTo balance out Californias budget is not realy all that easy , because if you take out any thing such as money for schools,or welfare or anythng that has to do with kids and there education then everyone and there mom gets in to it so you can't touch that they people get pissed if you take out anything with health or medical
ReplyDeleteJoeylee Maimone, Sloan 4
ReplyDeleteIt was not easy at all to try to balance California's budget. A lot of the decisions about cutting spending categories all took away from certain groups. I wouldn't want to take away any money from educational programs because having an education now adays is the only way to get anywhere in life. I do think that all the cuts towards illegal immigrants is necessary though. I think it's pretty dumb how they get tons of our money just for running across the border and having a several kids to support. I think they should take responsibility for themselves or go back to Mexico, that's fair right.
John Skinner
ReplyDeleteMr. Sloan Per. 4
1)No.
2)The illegal immigrants presence.
3)Yesh, Involving the state workers.
4)i think Brown's Proposals are a little radical, but i also think that is what we need right now.
5)Nope. 8 billion surplus
6) the tax increase to better school funding.
7)It would probably be better for a while, and then chaos would break loose.
8) Our government in particular, i think, has a difficult time balancing the budget because of the fear/threat of the outcomes of their decisions. Because there is no way to tell what could happen without actually doing it, There is alot of fear that the worst will happen.
it was very hard trying to balance the budget. i had to raise lots of taxes. and make things way more expensice. i didnt really know what to choose, there were just to many things to consider. it was like if i change this, then someone else is going to have trouble in life.
ReplyDeletekim hernandez
sloan
p.4
After completing the exercise, I saved the state if California 39.9 billion dollars. Yes huge cuts were made but sometimes that is what it takes to end things. Most of the cuts were fairly easy to make because I did not know what they were and since I would not be affected by them, I chose to make the cut. I thought that Jerry brown was being pretty soft on his decision making. He probably doesn't want to cut out half of the government in his first year in office. And I dont know why you said the link would be to much for phones cause mine handled it like a boss
ReplyDeleteIt was hard to balance the budget because there were things that would affect me and the people around me a hole lot but they had to be cut overall its a hard task because every little cut affects more than one person but they have to be done in oder to get out of the dept.
ReplyDeleterichard manzo
sloan pr5
It was pretty difficult to decide which programs to cut off. The plans that saved less money were the easier ones to choose, since they affected the people less. In my opinion, Brown's plans were a little too far. Yes, taxes were raised to balance the budget. If what I chose actually did happen, then the defficit would decrease but still have similar programs as before. I think that the Gov. has a hard time balancing the budget because by elliminating one issue, another issue is brought up and the cycle is will be hard to end.
ReplyDeleteGuadalupe Velasquez
Sloan, Period 1
I found trying to balance the budget extremely hard. There is so many things that I didnt want to cut. Brown is going a little too far with his proposals and cutting things that shouldnt be cut but in order to fix the economy some of them have to happen. I dont think it is necessary to raise taxes. This is a fairly hard blog because you have to think about each decision thoroughly and i can now see why the government has such a hard time.
ReplyDeleteThe budget was not easy to balance at all. A couple of the things that was hard for me to cut was some health programs and other things for the schools. Brown's plan made it harder to satisfy everyone. Also i did not raise taxes because California taxes are high enough already.
ReplyDeleteIt was quite easy for me to make cuts for the budget because i know it needs to be done. It was easy fo me to cut things suc as welfare, spending on illegal immagrants, and other social serv ices. I found it difficult to cut from eduacation. I believe Browns proposals are pretty spot on, but that he needs to cut out tons of Bureaucratic waste as well. I did raise taxes to balance the budget. This was necessary because we need to pay for our past mistakes somehow. If everything i chose happened, i would like to think california would hate me then realize it was necessary. In order to pull ourselves out of this red hole, we must go through tough times.
ReplyDeleteThe government has a hard time balancing the budget because they do not want to have any group gainst them so they can get re-elected next election time. They want to be in th publics good graces.
Well when I first started the budget game I made subtle changes, but I soon found that this wouldn't work. To balance the budget the best way that I found was to make cuts in anything I possibly could and to tax alot. The problem with this is it's a huge change for California, to take away all the freedoms and over spending we are used to isn't probably or possible of happening at our economys status.
ReplyDeleteI think everyone knows balancing the budget is not an easy task, that is why it takes so long. When cuts have to be made it is impossible to keep everyone happy. I do not think making a budget is about keeping people happy it is about doing what is best for our state and trying to keep us out of debt which we have not been successful at doing.
ReplyDeleteSpencer Pellandini
Sloan P.1
It was very hard for me to cut things because so many of them seem necessary to allow our country to function. The ones that raised the most money is were the ones that seemed most important. I think that to try and eliminate all the debt at once will cause many people to lose most of what they have and they will lose faith in the government. These plans would also be extremely hard to pass considering no one wants to do things like cut 40,000 workers jobs. I believe there are other solutions that are more minor that will add up over time that we can use to reduce debt. To get rid of it all completely would be near impossible.
ReplyDeleteZach Mietz
It was difficult to balance the budget. Cutting education was the hardest for especially because everyone needs a good education to create a better future. In some categories Brown's proposal worked but in others it was too much. I had to increse corporate taxes and taxes on alcohol, i believed those were the best to raise. In a sense balancing the budget is easy because even i could do it, but i believe it takes California so long because there's more than one person doing it and having more people working on the budget is difficult because everybody thinks differently.
ReplyDeleteWow, what to say? The first time around I made some small changes here and ther because they seemed necessary and reasonable in my opinion, but I still had a huge deficit. My second go, I found that more jerastic raises in taxes were needed. Getting our deficit balanced is a real complicated task, and we need to give Brown respect for taking on the challenge. I see all the decisions he made on education to be a real big negative, but after that little budget game, I realize that we have to grit our teeth for a while and suck it up as we attempt to clear our budget of this deficit. That's all I have to say about that.
ReplyDeleteThis exercise gave me a better perspective of the budget deficit. As I began this exercise, I tried cutting only a few programs and I increased taxes. I thought I was done and felt like it was an easy job, however, when I scrolled up to the top of the page I realized I merely dented the budget deficit. It was difficult! I had to cut programs I would never think about cutting. I think the lesson I learned is that change is going to be a slow process. The deficit will, with the right guidance, be eliminated. This will take some time.
ReplyDeleteGabby Cello p.3 Mr.sloan
Balancing out the budget was very difficult... Stuff that contributed money into schooling was easy to cut. We are in a massive recession and it has to be changed fast for the future.This can be compared to what happens in life because it is all decisions.
ReplyDeleteI think that balancing the budget was very difficult. Its hard to try to make the necessary cuts and try to make everyone happy at the same time. The hardest one for me was the school cuts. It seems that we should be devoting more money to the UCs and SCUs because the people going there are going to make a bigger difference than people not going to colleges.
ReplyDeleteIt was pretty hard to balance the budget, you have to make choices you know that will help out one group but will hurt another. Some of the decisions had to be done, but others were tough choices. The one where you had to choose how many people would get laid off was hard because you know that its necessary, but someone I know could be laid off becuase of that decision. Also the unemployment rate would just keep going up. Overall, it was hard.
ReplyDeleteit was hard to balance the budget. a tax extension should be imposed to decrease the deficit. brown was too flexible. basically taxes would majorly increase but if thats what it takes then so be it. although they cannot just take away money from families and businesses that are dependent on it for their basic needs.
ReplyDeletehayley swearingen
sloan per 4
Governor Jerryy Brown will have to take some tough decisions because hes not gonna please everyone in California. Both governor and citizens need to do their best on sacrifising some things for their countrys decisions.
ReplyDeleteI saved the budget and created more than a billion dollar reserve! :D Then again I cut everything welfare related and reduced the governments size. I think it's good Jerry Brown is tackling this before the budget deadline that way we might actually pass a budget on time one of these days. Just think though when it came to cutting the budget our future (education) was the first to hit the cutting block, with this mentality no wonder we are 48th (I think) in terms of education.
ReplyDeleteI found it more tedious than hard or easy. Since hard decisions are unavoidable, it's just a matter of what will keep you popular whilst raising the most money. All things were difficult to cut, that comes with the territory. Brown's proposals were just that, proposals. They don't really make me think any way or the other, since every decision we make will hurt us in some way. Yes, since those made a good chunk of money. The effect of all my "choices" happening on California would probably be pretty harsh, just like pretty much all of the choices. The government has a hard time balancing the budget because it's hard for them to manage everyone's money without people getting ticked off at them.
ReplyDeleteBrian S.
Per. 4 Sloan
THE FIRST THING THAT WAS ACTUALLY EASY FOR ME TO RAISE WAS THE ALCOHOL TAX. EVERY DRINK EQUALS TO ONE DIME. I COULD NOT CUT OR RAISE ANY OF THE WELFACE OR MEDI CAL BECAUSE PEOPLE NEED THOSE SERVICES. I ALSO COULD NOT CUT THE MONEY FROM THOSE THAT ARE LEAVING FOSTER CARE AT THE AGE OF 18-19. NOW SCHOOL WAS EASY TO RAISE BECAUSE I THINK SCHOOL SHOULD BE EITHER FREE OR CHEAPER THAN IT ALREADY IS. THE PRISON TAX SHOULD BE CUT AND NOT KEPT IN JAIL FOR A LESSER CRIME THAN RAPE, MURDER ETC.
ReplyDeleteamanda eckroth
ReplyDeleteper.1
mr.sloan
it was a challenge to make the budget even .. it seems like we need to forcused on our school but not put most of the money to the school yes we want education but hey it is what it is
The state budget is definitely something hard to balance, though it was hard there was things that obviously concerned me much more since i am yet a young person. For example when one had to take a decision about the UC's and CSU's the decision was hard since to me school is something of vital importance. While other things don't seem as important for example it was hard whether to make cuts for the care of the elderly, but i took in mind that one isn't young forever, so i decided to only cut some off their budget. One thing that i was not concerned about was the nickle on the alcohol since to me that is fair for an item that is not really vital to the public. But it is definitely something hard when it comes to balancing the budget. Schools need the money but the public cannot afford to go through with all the cuts that are given. At the end i managed to only lower the budget to $8.32 billion dollars.
ReplyDeleteTo balance the budget was hard for me. Cutting education was what was hardest because in my opinion everyone needs education. I didnt change the taxes though because it is high enough already. This would be hard for Governor Brown because he has to make sure he makes everyone in California happy.
ReplyDeleteIt was difficult balancing the budget because i saw need in money for many causes. Education is our future which is why it was hard to make cuts. Everyone has their own opinions and needs for certain things so I can see why Brown could face dilemmas in budget cuts.
ReplyDeleteOf course if it isn't easy for those whom are experienced with such to balance the budget, I, myself didn't find it easy either. Things that were easy to cut were things that didn't affect myself, such as immigrant aid. Things that were indeed a bit difficult to cut were things that did, such as college funding. Yes, in order to balance the budget it seems as if some taxes will need to be added somewhere. I felt the most comfortable actually now applying taxes to things that weren't taxed before such as vehicle and furniture repair. If everything I chose actually happened, California would be seeing a lot of change and no matter how you spin it, at least one specific group of people will unfortunately suffer greatly. This is also why I believe it is so hard for the government to balance things, since it will affect certain groups more than others it is hard to determine what groups should take the "hit."
ReplyDeleteAP Econ
Sloan, Period 3
balancing the budget was very difficult. there was choise that could save so much money but i would be happy if i were to choose them. the main point was finding a way to save money at the cost of some peoples needs. cutting parks and libraries was the easyest because i dont really need them too much. i can have fun at other places and well books are basically online. at least summarized versions of them. but the most difficult to check off were health care and laying off state employees. we need health care and if we send more people to look for work itll cause more competition and other unexperienced workers may be without a job. overall i did not completely balance the budget by about three billion. its probably hard for the govt to balence it out because they dont want to make things difficult for a portion of people may depend on the options being cut.
ReplyDeleteI found it nearly impossible to balance the budget. It was rather easy for me to increase things that were alcohol related or involved speeders. Cuts that were difficult were ones that involved education. We need education because it helps to educate the population and create more efficient inventions, etc. in the future. Some of Brown's proposals were pretty bad, because a lot of them involved taking away funds from people who really need that support; elderly, blind, etc. people. Some proposals that raised taxes were good, like the one that increased taxes on alcohol, because people buy them a lot and 10 cents doesn't seem very much. I believe the government has such as hard time balancing the budget is because there are so many issues at hand and they're all so complex and influence each other. If one thing is raised, it hurts like 20 other things.
ReplyDelete-Kevin Rodgers, Period 2, Sloan
it was really hard to balance the budgetbecause many of the programs or things were needed it was really impossible to not cut one u or others needed.. i foud it dificult to cut out the programs because we need them all.
ReplyDeleteThe California's budget its hard to balance because all the governors proposals are needed to our society for example the health insurance for illegal people,or welfare that many people need to support their families.Others proposals can be cut such as reducing taxes i dont think governor should propose that is not necessary.
ReplyDeleteThe California budget is going to be really hard to try and balance...personally it was easy to cut all the stuff for the aid of immigrants and wellfare cause that dosent really affect me but I wasn't down to cut all the education because myself going to college next year am probaly going to need government help. Browns plan seems way harsh in all aspects and I can't really imagine the california government passing some of those ideas.
ReplyDeleteIt was pretty hard to balance the budget of California.It was easy to cut because most of the things I cut off were really important.Yes i had to raise the taxes to cut the budget which is not really good because this upsets the people because California taxes are already really high. I think that more money should be given to the schools like or aid because we are suffering pretty bad right now.
ReplyDeletebalancing californias budget is nearly impossible. it means we have to cut lots of programs that we still need. we had to cut a lot of education which is obviously hella important. im kinda worried about our deficit and hope that it won't be as bad as it sounds. it makes me nervous for the future...
ReplyDeleteThis was really difficult. I tried to cut government spending, but I just couldn't take that money away from anyone! I couldn't deny aid for adult day care for families, or lay off state workers, or raise fees for community colleges and take funding away from state schools, because all of these things would hurt people that I know. These are all people who, if these cuts happened, would simply have to watch their lives collapse in front of them. I really don't know how the government can make these cuts.
ReplyDeleteSasha Schotzko-Harris
Bauer 1
the budget of California was hard to manage. it is hard to cut programs that we still need. balancing is nearly impossible, i ended up taxing more than anything. i did not cut education that much because i believe that we need education more than anything. what we really need to do is tax the hell out of the rich.
ReplyDeleteMr. bauer, p.3
It was hard to balance the budget bacause i had to cut and raised money for certain programs. At the end i had to raised to taxes to balanced the budget even though i didnt wanted to raised the taxes i had to do it.
ReplyDeleteJonathan Ramos
Mr.Bauer
Per.2
i'm sure if i was actually cutting the budget it would be alot harder than clicking a mouse. The easiest things for me to cut were with prisons and welfare. i felt like Browns proposals were good. i didn't have to raise taxes but i kept raised taxes the same
ReplyDeletei dont think anything should be messed around with or especially cut brown should try and make everything equal.
ReplyDeleteAniscia SIlva
Sloan
Per 5
It was very hard trying to balance the budget. I had to raise lots of taxes and make things way more expensive. I didn't really know what to choose, there were just too many things to consider picking. In my opinion i think that everything should be equal.
ReplyDeleteStephanie A
Mr. Sloan
Per.4