• Mission & Governance
• Services Overview
• How to Get Involved
• Standing Committees
• NCSL Foundation

• Issue Areas: A-Z
• State-Federal Relations
• NCSL Standing Committees
• News from D.C. and the States

• About State Legislatures
• Elections, Campaigns & Redistricting
• NCSL's StateConnect Directory
• Web Sites

• Online Guide to NCSL Services
• Staff Sections and Networks
• Meetings & Professional Development
• Staff Directories

• Meetings Calendar
• Online Registration
• Meetings Home Page
• Legislative Summit

• Bookstore
• State Legislatures Magazine
• NCSL's StateConnect Directory

Trust for Representative Democracy Home Page

Appreciating Democracy: A Lesson Plan for High School Teachers of
Civics, Government, and U.S. History

Lesson Plan Table of Contents

Activity 3 (Print or Download Files)

What is often important in a legislative body are not differences over an issue or policy, such as abortion, guns, capital punishment, or environmental regulation. What is important are priorities or choices among items that nearly everyone favors. Differences among priorities, among goods (that is, items that legislators are positive about) are common in the legislature's appropriations process by which a budget for the state is adopted. The most important questions involve whether to spend more on health programs, or more on correctional programs, or more on whatever. This activity is designed so that students can see these differences for themselves and better understand the deliberations, negotiations and settlements that occur in the legislative process all the time.

1. To understand and appreciate a few of the basic practices of democracy:

• That people have different values, interests and opinions.
• These differences are often settled by means of deliberation and negotiation, with compromise and a majority vote as key elements.

2. To explore differences often confronted by state legislatures when enacting a state budget.

1. Allow students time to read over the student handout and address any questions. (10 minutes)
2. Review the directions and assign student roles. (2 minutes)
3. You might want to provide students with a couple of minutes to clarify their position on the subcommittee they have been assigned.(5 minutes)
4. Call the budget meeting to order and facilitate the discussion. (20 minutes)
5. If more time is necessary, allow students to continue to deliberate after class and into the next class period. This will not only provide you with the extra time needed, but will allow the students to experience many of the informal discussions that are part of the negotiations process.
6. As you will be facilitating the discussion, it would be difficult to take notes with an observer worksheet form. Observe the process, making mental notes of deliberation, negotiation and settlement.
7. Debrief the activity using the questions for debriefing (below).

The main questions to be addressed in this activity's debriefing are:

1. Did the subcommittees try to reach consensus on what their positions would be before the full committee undertook its discussions?
2. If so, what did each subcommittee initially decide to advocate?
3. Or did the full committee first decide whether to increase the sales tax or cut the budget or do both? How was that decision reached? What part did deliberation, negotiation, and compromise play? Were votes taken? What were they?
4. If cuts were required, how did the appropriations committee decide which areas to cut and how much to cut from each? What part did deliberation negotiation, and compromise play here? Were votes taken? What were they?
5. What, then, was the final settlement?
6. How did the students feel about the process? Was it fair? Was the settlement fair?

Each year your state legislature reviews and adopts a budget, which specifies the revenues the state will be collecting (mainly from taxes) and the funds the state will be spending on a variety of programs and services for its citizens. In your state, as well as most others, the governor prepares a detailed budget, which he or she submits to the legislature. The legislature may change items or increase or reduce amounts in the governor's budget before it enacts a budget bill (or bills). But the legislature has a constitutional responsibility to balance the state budget, so that the total amount to be spent does not exceed the total amount to be collected.

In your state legislature the appropriations committees have to decide on the state budget for the following year, and then make a recommendation to the house and senate. You will adopt the role of a member of the house appropriations committee and serve on one of the committee's four subcommittees--health, education, welfare, and homeland security, which together comprise the full committee. Each subcommittee has control over the budget in its designated area.

These four subcommittees have requests from the governor for expenditure increases of $1 billion over the previous year's budget, mainly because of important new programs that are being undertaken in each of these areas. Below are descriptions of the expenditure requests for each of the subcommittees.

Health Subcommittee

The problem, however, is that the budget, as submitted by the governor, is facing a shortfall because of an economic recession. Tax revenues are down and either budget expenditures will have to be cut or taxes increased, or some combination of the two. The appropriations committee has to cut or raise $500 million. Cuts can be distributed to one, two, three, or all four of the subcommittees, on which you sit. Increasing the sales tax by two pennies on the dollar will raise the $500 million necessary to balance the budget. Increasing the sales tax by one penny on the dollar will raise $250 million, or half of what is needed to balance the budget. It should be noted, however, that a recent statewide public opinion poll showed a clear majority against any tax increase. A sales tax increase fared best, but still 60 percent opposed it, only 25 percent supported it, while the remaining 15 percent were undecided. The only taxing option to be considered in this activity is an increase in the sales tax.

Your teacher will act as the chair of the appropriations committee during the discussion of how to balance the budget. During the committee meeting, the chair may permit the subcommittee members to caucus and decide on subcommittee positions. During the meeting, committee members may speak or make motions only when they are recognized by the chair. Remember, each of the four subcommittees must defend its programs, but the full committee must reach a settlement that results in a balanced budget.

The alternatives are:

1. Raise the sales tax by two pennies, so no cuts are necessary;
2. Raise the sales tax by one penny, so $250 million has to be cut;
3. Do not raise the sales tax, so $500 million has to be cut.

Under (2) or (3) a decision has to be made as to how much to cut from each subcommittee's proposed expenditures for the specified new programs.

Although the teacher will be chairing the full committee, students may engage in the discussion, introduce motions, or request a recess to try to negotiate an agreement.

Visitor counts for this page.