Do I have to complete the Backseat Budgeter all at once or will my selections be saved until I return to the simulation?

As you make each individual budget decision, click on “Save My Budget Decision” at the bottom of each page and your selections will be saved. To exit Backseat Budgeter and return at another time, select “Save My Budget” from the gray toolbar. You will be required to set up an account with us so we can store your budget. When you return to finish, select “See My Budget” from the gray toolbar and enter your email address – this will retrieve your previous budget decisions and load them into the simulation again.

How do I start over?

If you wish to start fresh, click “Reset” on the gray toolbar at the top of your screen.

May I modify my decision after one has been selected?

Yes. Modify one or more of your decisions by returning to the spending or revenue option and changing your selection.

What happens with my budget once I go through all the options?

Once you’ve finished, click on “I’m Finished!” and you’ll be taken to a menu where you can choose to see a report of your budget, see an aggregate report of everyone’s budgets, save your budget so you can return later, or discuss with others. Once enough people have completed the simulation, a report will be shared with the Governor and Legislators.

What counts as balanced?

For the purposes of this simulation tool, the budget is considered to be balanced with spending and revenue are within 2% of each other. Over the course of the fiscal year actual expenses change and revenue collections don’t always turn out the same as projections. The point of the simulation is to understand the budget better and to communicate the priorities to policymakers.

Who are the authors of the Backseat Budgeter?

Backseat Budgeter is a public service tool created by Engaged Public. The simulation tool is designed to help citizens understand the tradeoffs associated with spending public dollars. It is offered as a community service at cost to any public entity wishing to educate and engage its constituents. Engaged Public is a firm specializing in the development of public policy strategies designed to educate and generate dialogue.

The Denver Public Schools Budget

• Colorado General Assembly – Joint Budget Committee
• Colorado Office of State Planning and Budgeting
• Colorado State Treasurer

Fiscal Constitutional Amendments:
TABOR (Taxpayers Bill of Rights) and Amendment 23

• Colorado 100
• Colorado General Assembly – Joint Budget Committee: 2008 Budget in Brief
• Colorado Legislative Council “Study: TABOR, Amendment 23, the Gallagher Amendment, and Other Fiscal Issues.”
• The Bell Policy Center
• Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute, “Aiming for the Middle: Benchmarks for Colorado’s Future”

Health Care

• Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF)
• Colorado General Assembly: Blue Ribbon Commission for Health Care Reform
• The Lewin Group: Cost and Coverage Impacts of Five Proposals to Reform the Colorado Health Care System

Education

• Colorado Department of Education

Corrections

• Colorado Office of State Planning and Budgeting
• Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Commission

Higher Education

• Colorado Department of Higher Education
• “The Impact of Public Higher Education on the State of Colorado” Prepared by The Adams Group LLC, Dec. 2007.

Human Services

• Colorado Department of Human Services
• Colorado Data Book

Transportation

• “Colorado Transportation Finance and Implementation Panel: A Report to Colorado, January 2008.
• “Moving Colorado Forward: Vision for the Future,” 2035 Statewide Transportation Plan.

Amendment 23: In 2000 Colorado voters passed Amendment 23, which guarantees minimum levels of funding for education. Under Amendment 23, per-pupil funding is required to keep pace with the rate of inflation. Additionally, between 2002 and 2011 an extra one percent is added each year in order to restore cuts made to education in the 1990s due to the passage of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR).

Federal Funds: Funds received from the federal government. Some federal funds are grants for limited purposes. Other federal funds support ongoing state-federal programs and may require state matching funds. Examples of programs requiring a state match are Medicaid and highway construction. Federal funds are exempt from the provisions of TABOR.

FTE: Full-time equivalent (one position filled all year).

FY: ‘Fiscal Year’. The State of Colorado’s fiscal year does not follow the calendar year, but instead is from July 1st to June 30th. Therefore FY 2010-11 refers to Fiscal Year July 1, 2010 to June 30th, 2011.

Gallagher Amendment: The Gallagher Amendment, passed in 1982, impacts how much Colorado homeowners pay in property taxes. The Amendment was designed to maintain a constant ratio between the property tax revenue that comes from residential property and from business property. Under the Gallagher Amendment, when home values grow faster than business values, homeowners pay proportionately less. Over time this has resulted in a widening gap between assessment rates on residential properties (currently 7.96%) and business properties (currently 29%). The net effect has been a marked decline in revenues collected from property tax, which prior to Gallagher, provided the majority of school funding. Note that the combination of Gallagher and the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) has shifted the burden of school funding from local property taxes to the State General Fund.

General Fund: Fund into which general tax revenues, such as state sales and income taxes, are deposited. The General Fund is used to pay, in whole or in part, for state programs that benefit a majority of state citizens, such as education and corrections.

Referendum C: Colorado voters adopted a measure popularly known as Referendum C in the general election in 2005. This measure allows the State to retain all General Fund revenues in excess of the limits imposed by TABOR (Article X, Section 20 of the state constitution) between July 1, 2005 and July 1, 2010. Revenues retained under this provision are classified as General Fund Exempt. Referendum C effectively suspends the revenue retention provisions of TABOR as applied to the state government for five years. General Fund Exempt moneys are required to be appropriated or transferred by the General Assembly for the following purposes only: (a) health care; (b) education, including capital construction projects related thereto; (c) retirement plans for firefighters and police officers, if the General Assembly determines such funding is needed; and (d) strategic transportation projects.

Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR): In 1992 Colorado voters adopted a citizen-initiated amendment to the Colorado Constitution known as the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights (TABOR, Article X, Section 20). The amendment restricts state and local governments' ability to increase revenues without voter approval, and thereby generally serves to limit spending by those governments. Under TABOR, a vote of the people is required for any state or local government to (a) increase tax rates, (b) increase retained revenues by more than the sum of inflation and the percentage population growth, (c) incur multi-year debt, or (d) weaken other limits on revenue. The amendment requires that collected revenue in excess of the inflation plus population growth limit be refunded to the voters in the following fiscal year. In November 2005 voters passed Referendum C, which allows the State to retain all revenue through FY 2009-10, during a five-year TABOR “time out.”