It’s something that a number of people have thought of. But in February, a group of people met at the Garage48 public services design competition and actually did it – visualized the Republic of Estonia’s budget.

Coloured spheres that open on MeieRaha.eu shows the structure and proportion of the revenue and expenditures in the state budget. The MeieRaha.eu page not only shows where the state earns its money and what it spends it on. It is also possible, in an entertainment-oriented yet very business-like fashion, to “play around” with various revenue and spending items to get an idea of how they affects budget balance.

One of the project initiators, Hille Hinsberg, said it is also a way to visualize also each local government’s budget, company’s budget or even a family’s budget.

British site serves as a model

The idea to make the state budget somehow more comprehensible, interactive and illustrative has been mulled over in people’s heads for a longer period of time already. The British site WhereDoesMyMoneyGo.org serves as a model, showing on the basis of the total amount of wages how much a given person’s taxes go to health, social welfare, education, culture and other fields.

Developed in 48 hours, MeieRaha.eu is far from perfect, Hinsberg admits, but it is a “touchable” visualization of a 500-page state budget document. It is also a springboard or a intermediate step.

Hinsberg envisions various possibilities for taking MeieRaha.eu even further. The plan is to involve the Ministry of Finance and local governments as well to examine whether it could be useful for them. For instance, the environment would allow the cost of campaign pledges to be calculated and offset against major investments and EU assistance.

Skype Estonia’s CEO as the biggest fan

Skype Estonia’s CEO Sten Tamkivi is one of MeieRaha.eu’s biggest fans and supporters. One reason that “something as boring as the state budget” should be visualized, according to Tamkivi, is the fact that major sums of money are difficult to grasp and compare for many people – over a certain amount it just seems like “a very large sum of money”. He also notes that it is important to understand the budget balance to help make sense and parties’ major, tempting but ultimately too costly pledges in the run-up to elections.

Possible developments of MeieRaha.eu mentioned by Tamkivi include, for instance, versions in Russian, English and other languages automated data linkup with government agencies, and interlinked budget line items (unemployment and tax revenue) to better illustrate the connections.