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Priorities Public policy choices that affect our quality of life cannot be made intelli- gently without setting spending prior- ities. In 1981 and again in 1986, First Banks polled the general public and selected community leaders, asking respondents to make hard choices in key categories of public-sector spend- ing. Provided with current public spending totals in each category, respondents were asked to reduce tax spending for a list of selected services by a total of l0 percent. Respondents were allowed to in- crease or decrease spending within each category--thus redistributing resources according to their priori- tie.~ but were required to end up with an overall 10-percent decrease. Significantly, few respondents in either group simply cut all categories of spending by 10 percent. Notable differences existed in 1986 between the public and leaders on the importance of health, housing, admin- istration and transportation. Public respondents wanted to increase health spending slightly; leaders wanted to cut that category. The public chose to more than double spending for hous- ing, while leaders wanted to increase it by one-third. And the public rated transportation spending less impor- tant than did leaders. Compared with 1981, both leaders and the public rated housing, culture and recreation as more important in the 1986 survey. A cautionary note: comparisons be- tween th~ 1981 and 1986 poll results are difficult because a ninth spending category, administration, was added to the 1986 poll. Both leaders and the public used that category to make sig- nificant reductions, but the public cut the category more than twice as much as did leaders. The introduction of the adminis- trative category in the 1986 poll may account for another major difference with the 1981 poll. In the 1981 poll, both public and leaders made signifi- cant cuts in spending for culture and recreation. In the latest poll, both groups left it unchanged. 1986 Budget Priorities Survey Results ~ Current ~ Commur~ty Leaders ~ General r-u~,~ic Education -5% wv ~. Welfare & Employment Security ~m~ , I -13% · -15% J ~! Transportation ig ',_,,;o ' ~ ~-17% I~ ~ Safe~ and Pollution Administratio~ . -9% 0 Health Culture and Housing Recreation I I II Personal vs. Community Priorities II I Personal Priority Lookin~g ahead $ or 10 years, which one should be the top priority for improving your personaI life7 Community Priority Looking ahead $ or 10 years~ which one should be the top priority for improving the overall community quality of 1Lfe? General Community General Community Public Leaders Public Leaders 1. Education Education Education ~obs 2. Health Jobs Jobs Education 3. Jobs Culture Health Income/Welfare 4. Environment Environment Public Safety Public Safety 5. Public Safety Public Safety Income/Welfare Environment 6. Housing Participation Environment Transit 7. Income/Welfare Transit Housing Housing 8. Culture Health Transit Health 9. Transit Housing Participation Culture 10. Participation Income/Welfare Culture Participation PAG'