scooper's blog
Citizens find budget solutions within reach
Last week I attended three inspirational public forums that the Bush Foundation convened to talk about the Minnesota state budget. These events – Citizen Solutions Forums held in Grand Rapids, Bloomington and Rochester – invited regular citizens of all political persuasions to sit down together, look at the numbers and figure out how they’d solve the state’s budget woes.
I was impressed by how seriously people took this exercise, and not just because they were willing to set aside nearly four hours on a weeknight to talk about budget deficits. What was really impressive was how people were willing to talk with complete strangers about their budget priorities, the values that drive those priorities and what their hopes are for the future. Perhaps the most impressive thing of all was that participants were willing to work together in small groups to look beyond differences of opinion and to find the kind of compromise that seems to have eluded many public officials.
A few themes emerged from these meetings:
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