Campaign 2010

Cities coalition unveils state budget-balancing website

by Tim Pugmire, Minnesota Public Radio

St. Paul, Minn. — Mayors and other city officials are using a new interactive website to highlight the state budget deficit as a top election-year issue.

The Coalition of Greater Minnesota Cities unveiled an online budget simulator Wednesday that allows users to experiment with various combinations of spending cuts or tax increases to try to erase a projected $5.8 billion deficit.

Steve Peterson, the coalition's senior policy analyst, said the website also gives the three major party candidates for governor a chance to spell out the details of their own budget-balancing proposals.

"If Minnesotans can go online and balance the budget, the governor candidates should also be able to give us a detailed budget, so we can actually have an honest debate about what is going to happen in this election," Peterson said.

City leaders say clear answers about the budget from the gubernatorial candidates will help them as they put together local budget proposals.