Raising Money for Government Services
Class Length: 2 Class Meetings
Objectives
Students will be able to:
- Describe why governments need revenue to provide goods and services.
- Explain how the federal, state, and local governments garner revenue to pay for expenses, and to which programs spending is applied.
Materials:
-Internet
-Overhead transparencies
Terms:
-Sales tax
-Income tax
-Property tax
Procedures:
Briefly review the term budget.
As a class, generate a list of federal, state, and local expenditures:
-Federal (mainly from income tax):
- Revenue for defense
- Housing and urban development
- Social Security
- Medicare.
-State governments (sales tax, income tax, property tax):
- Public utilities
- Education
- State parks
-Local governments (similar to state):
- Police and fire departments
Using the class government textbook as a guide, the teacher should discuss how each level of government generates revenue to pay for its expenses.
Have students define sales tax, income tax, and property taxes.
Divide the class into three groups. Assign each group to research the local county, state, or federal budget. Have each group create a list of what they think should be the five most important spending categories for the level of government they have been assigned.
Each group will find the main revenue and expense categories in a recent county, state, or federal budget using the local newspaper or Internet. Each group should compare the actual expense categories with the categories in the list it created. They will present their findings to class on overhead transparencies.
Once all the groups have presented their findings, discuss the similarities and differences among local, state, and federal budgets.
Have each group conduct a survey and find out what members of the local community think are spending priorities for the county, state, or country. Students will consider the following questions:
- What do spending priorities “say” about a county, state, or the country at large?
- Think about a time when you took a survey, or if you were handed one today, on a sensitive topic (alcohol/drug exposure, illegal or inappropriate Internet materials, under-age movie screenings, etc). How would you answer questions on sensitive information? Would you answer differently if the survey were anonymous? If you knew what your friends were writing? How accurate do you think surveys are when they reveal information regarding county, state, or national spending priorities?
- Do you think it is a good idea for the federal government to fund major programs like Social Security or Medicare? Why/Why not?