In a wider democratic process maybe people could vote on which issue to allocate funding to
Democracy by referendum is a dangerous game though. Current UK issues aside, California had a system when Arnie was in charge whereby any petition that got more than X signatures went to a referendum. The state went bust because people voted simultaneously for lower taxes and better services.
Referendums are shit because the punter has no skin in the game (or at least no obligation to reconcile two apparently contradictory decisions)
