Tired of sitting in the nosebleed section watching politicians wrestle over the $190 million shortfall in the state budget?

State government has an online tool that will put you ringside.

Maine’s budget-balancing tool, located on the Web site of Gov. John Baldacci’s office, gives visitors the chance to set their own taxing and spending priorities, then e-mail their proposals to the governor.

Since it was posted in January 2007, when Baldacci introduced a $6.4 billion budget for the current two-year cycle, the budget balancer has attracted 6,632 visits, and 98 proposed budgets have been submitted.

Joy Leach, a spokeswoman for Baldacci, said the citizen budgets are compiled in a database that can be accessed by the governor’s office. She said the tool is seen as an educational device, and not necessarily a barometer of public opinion or a source of ideas for making policy.

But that hasn’t stopped users from sounding off on their spending plans.“Try this,” wrote a user named Chris Cole in an e-mail with his spending proposal, which yielded a $4 million surplus by boosting the meals and lodging tax.

“Better than you,” wrote a user named James, who proposed small sales, cigarette and meals tax increases.

“See it’s not that hard to make a cut in the budget if you have strong leadership skills,” declared a user named Stephen Carmichael, whose budget cut education spending and raised cigarette and meals taxes to create a $1 billion surplus.

The citizen budgets varied widely from the $6.4 billion package Baldacci submitted last year. Forty-five submissions were below the governor’s spending proposal and 25 were higher, with the remainder falling relatively close to the governor’s plan.

Some of the favored targets for cuts were the $1.6 billion budget for MaineCare, the state’s version of Medicaid, and the $56 million budget for the Legislature. Half of the proposed budgets cut legislative spending and only three increased it.

On the revenue side, 75 percent of the budgets increased the state’s 5 percent sales tax to raise more money for programs. Many budgets also featured higher cigarette and meals and lodgings taxes.

Dugan Shipway, president of Bath Iron Works, proposed a budget that came in about $130 million below Baldacci’s. Shipway sent an e-mail comment praising the value of the tool.

“Thanks for having it on your Web site,” Shipway wrote.

Others were more critical.

“This was not any fun,” wrote Bill Getz. “Shrinking the size of government was not an option.”

Rip Cunningham, retired from the magazine publishing business, didn’t tinker with the spending levels proposed by Baldacci but suggested increases in the sales, cigarette and meals and lodgings taxes that would produce a $278 million surplus.

“Use the surplus to begin reducing income taxes,” Cunningham, 62, a political independent, wrote in an e-mail to the governor. Cunningham said in a phone interview that Maine should collect more tax revenue from tourism because it is such a major part of the state’s economy.

Dave Hill, a Republican from Gorham, sent Baldacci a budget that reduced educational spending by about $567 million. Hill said the state was spending too much on new schools with costly amenities, such as weight rooms, large auditoriums and multiple gymnasiums.

He said the money not spent on education should be diverted to social service programs for the elderly or people with developmental disabilities.Both Hill and Cunningham said the tool was easy to use and gave them a better idea of what it’s like to have to balance the state budget.

Online traffic at the budget balancing tool is down significantly from 2003, when it first went online. In that year the tool attracted some...