Facilitator's Guide

for Teaching

Taxes:

Where Does the Money Go?

Copyright ©  1998  Regents of the University of Minnesota. All rights reserved.

Table of Contents

Overview

This facilitator's guide has been prepared for use with Taxes: Where Does the Money Go? Federal, State, and Local Government. References to tables, figures, and page numbers correspond to the Taxes publication.

"Warm-Up" Exercise see Appendix B of this guide (5 min.)

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Let's take a few minutes to answer as many of the warm-up questions as you can. Answering these questions will help you to start thinking about taxes. As we go through the session today, you will learn the answers to the questions in this warm-up exercise. At the end, we will come back to this as a cool-down exercise. If you have time for the cool-down exercise, go through answers to the exercise all at once after the cool-down at the end of the session.) Answers to the questions are in the boxes in this text.

Introductions (5 min.)

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Today we will provide a basic overview on state and local government financing. We will be covering facts about taxes: why there are taxes, criteria used in determining who and what to tax, and basic information about sources of revenue for various levels of government and how that money is spent.

We recognize that we may differ on the specific level of services that we want government to provide. We will not debate the value of various government programs or set priorities for funding in today's session. It is the role of the political process to set priorities for government services and expenditures. We all have the opportunity to be part of that process through talking to our elected officials and "Truth in Taxation" hearings. The information presented today will be useful background for you to understand prior to these hearings or prior to visiting with your local elected official.

We have a list of additional resources if you would like to research this topic further. (See Appendix E of this facilitator's guide.)

The data in this material are the most recent available: 1990-91.

Most tables and figures are compiled by economists from the University of Minnesota and list the source.

Follow this introduction with a reading of the objectives of the materials.

Objectives

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Produced by Communication and Educational Technology Services, University of Minnesota Extension.

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