Think Ninja Gaiden Black was a hard game? Try balancing Maryland’s state budget.

[URL=http://www.marylandpolicy.org/]The Maryland Budget and Tax Policy Institute[/URL] is offering visitors to its website a chance to try their hand at making bureaucratic ends meet in a new Flash game. As the Governor of Maryland—and faced with a projected deficit of at least $1.7 billion dollars for the fiscal 2011 year—players will attempt to balance the budget by choosing varying spending options in a variety of government-funded sectors, such as education, environment, social services, health and transportation.

Additionally, ten different special interest groups will weigh in with their reactions to your spending decisions.

The Institute’s director, Neil Bergsman, explained to [URL=http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/articles/2010/01/18/news/local_news/2_budget_game.txt]the Carroll County Times[/URL] the reasoning behind creating the game:

[INDENT]I thought that doing something that was a little bit like a video game would be able to inform, educate and entertain some people who wouldn’t otherwise come to our site and read about the state budget.

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[url=http://www.gamepolitics.com/2010/01/18/flash-game-lets-users-try-balance-maryland-budget]More...[/url]