California's annual budget crisis gained increasing public attention in the 1990s. The 64-day budget impasse of 1992 disrupted thousands of Californians' lives while garnering national and international media coverage. Despite the impact of the state budget on California's 31 million residents, the media continually fails to cover the budget process with any depth, leaving many citizens ignorant of the repercussions of constitutional and voter-initiated constraints, the mechanics of the budget process, and potential solutions to budgetary challenges. Crucial to addressing this problem is the development of an understanding in stakeholders and citizens of the existing budget and its process. The simulation also incorporates Constitutional restrictions faced by legislators and the Governor.
Participants can raise taxes and cut programs as they wish to achieve a balanced budget.
Each participant receives a handbook with software application instructions, a briefing on the budget and associated Constitutional and structural restrictions, a glossary of budget terms, and detail on all revenue and expeniture proposals. All information is contained in the application, with the added benefit of automatic calculation of the fiscal impact of proposals. The handbooks reinforce understanding of the budget-making process and serve as a tangible reference that players may take home and use in additional budget simulation sessions they convene. Participants in each session are divided into groups of nine so that each group can experience the tension between a simple majority and the two-thirds majority required by the State Constitution. Participants thus face the same diversity of interests and constituencies faced by the Legislature.