By Brian Jacobs | Howe Assistant County Counselor

Finance, or the idea of raising and spending money, within the realm of politics is a very complicated process. Most often talked about in the media is how money is raised and, more controversial, how those dollars are spent. However, finance covers a broad range of activities within the different steps of the political process. Starting with the funding of campaigns to running a government’s budget, finance is the dollars that make the world go around.

In the United States there are several ways different governments raise and spend their dollars. Commonly, through taxes, governments are able to raise money to provide services to their constituents. Some of those services which benefit the general public are education, fire and emergency responders, police departments, and infrastructure, to name a few. The challenge for governments is how to appropriately allocate the dollars received with the dollars that they need to spend. This conundrum leads to the theory of trade-offs — the theory of which option will benefit the largest population of people.

At Badger Boys State, elected officials meet with their constituents to decide how to best allocate the monies they receive with what they spend. Through real-world simulations, citizens are at the epicenter of decision making; deciding what areas need the most dollars and how to appropriately spend what they bring in. Additionally, within the School of Public Finance, citizens have the opportunity to learn about different levels of government spending and how personal finances impact decisions individuals make. This hands-on experience with finance gives citizens the opportunity to have a voice in how their government makes financial decisions. Through learning about finance at Badger Boys State, citizens are prepared to take back the knowledge they learned to their local communities with an understanding of how they can make a difference.