Strategies for better policy.

Backseat Budgeter

Engaged Public is always looking for innovative ways to interact with the public on policy issues.  As a result, Engaged Public created Backseat Budgeter ®.  Backseat Budgeter® is a tool to help citizens understand the tradeoffs associated with spending our public dollars. It enables users to experience what it is like to manage a public budget, see the effects of decisions, and appreciate the complexities of the public budgeting process.  Since introducing Backseat Budgeter in 2009, it has received tremendous media attention. This fun, interactive tool is also used in Engaged Public’s various leadership initiatives, including the Bighorn Leadership Development Program.   

Backseat Budgeter is offered as a community service by Engaged Public at cost to any public entity wishing to educate and engage its constituents.

What people are saying about Backseat Budgeter:

  •  "Pure awesome for wonky types."- SquareState.net
  •  “I have a new favorite toy. It's called the backseat budgeter and it is SO COOL.”- J. Adrian Stanley, Colorado Springs Independent
  • “The website gives a basic grounding to Coloradans unfamiliar with the state's complicated budget process and myriad constitutional restrictions.” -Denver Post’s Tim Hoover
  •  Joint Budget Committee member State Sen. Pat Steadman said, "[Backseat Budgeter] is a good tool for people to sit and see that there are consequences to all different decisions." -7News
  •  "BackseatBudgeter.com is a fine idea with good educational value, and we hope that its creators – and its funder – continue the site for the 2011-2012 year.” - State Senator Ellen Roberts in The Durango Herald
  •  “[Backseat Budgeter] shows exactly what Coloradans are up against in what we sometimes call the Fiscal Gordian Knot – that includes the constitutional restraints the voters have created, way back to the Gallagher Amendment in 1982, up through TABOR in 1992, and Amendment 23 in 2000.” - Colorado Education Association
  •  “[Backseat Budgeter’s] members picked a very fitting way to start connecting us to Colorado's difficult budget conversations.”- Colorado Fiscal Policy Institute's blog 'Policy Matters’