June 29, 2011 10:54 PM UTC

Video Companion Has Tools to Get Us Talking About State Budget

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• by: TheBell

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

Recently, the Bell Policy Center released Colorado’s Budget: In Plain Talk, a video that explains the basics of the state budget and introduces Coloradans to our state’s fiscal challenges.

Now the Bell is back with a tool kit that goes along with the video.

We encourage Coloradans to use these tools — individually or to help lead informed discussions in groups large and small. We want to spark a conversation, and the tools offer a starting point.

It’s important that Coloradans have these critical conversations, because in our state, voters, not lawmakers, are responsible for key fiscal decisions.

The video and the tools start with the basics of the budget and break down information into easy-to-manage pieces. Here’s what you will find in the tool kit:

A Video Companion — Follows the narrative of the video and adds further information with simple charts and descriptions. For presentations, the companion goes step by step through information in the video to help lead a discussion. It also has useful discussion questions and FAQs to add to the conversation.

Companion PowerPoint — Presents charts, discussion questions and options from the Video Companion in a form that can be projected for an audience.

Presentation handouts — Two-page summary, FAQs and discussion items in one package so they can be easily distributed.

The Pols crowd keeps up with budget matters, but we think even Polsters will find the tool kit useful. “A Video Companion” walks through the budget and our fiscal challenges and makes it easy to find facts and figures. Check it out