The Interactive California Budget Balancer

Try your hand at eliminating the red ink in California’s budget.

The state’s budget shortfall for the rest of this fiscal year and next, estimated to be $28 billion, is the size of the total general fund budget of 12 states combined: Delaware, Idaho, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia.

We’ve provided a wide range of options — spending cuts and tax increases — that cover most of the proposals made by Democratic or Republican lawmakers. It’s not easy, but it can be done.

I have worked through the numbers a few times and found it fairly easy to balance the budget WITHOUT raising ANY taxes.

See what you can do and either Tweet up your results or leave a comment below.