Residents of Maine, according to a recent survey, are uninformed about the state budget. So state government, in response, has made an online “suggestion box” for ideas from the public about efficiently managing – you guessed it – the budget.

We hope good answers come forward. The woeful survey findings – less than one-third of residents claimed familiarity with the budget process, although most are dissatisfied with it – means the quality of responses will likely be less than desired. Kudos to lawmakers for engaging the public with this effort, however.

Which leads to our suggestion: Instead of asking the public what it would do to streamline government (opening the door to endless “stop leaning on shovels” jokes), a wiser strategy would be working on ways to inform and educate the populace about where its billions of tax dollars eventually end up.

There are good reasons Mainers are ill-informed about the state budget process: it’s long, complex and harder to follow than an out-of-date Gazetteer.

Following the fiscal alchemy concocted from blends of trends, projections, debits, credits and – most important – politics, is beyond the day-to-day ability of most residents.

It’s not that we don’t care. The same survey found nearly 90 percent of residents are concerned with taxes and spending, and desire an efficient state government. (What the other 10 percent wish for is beyond us.) The machinery for turning these emotions into actions resides in Augusta, under a glittering, columned dome adorned with a statue.

(Which is nearly always lit. Would shutting it off for a few hours each day save some dollars?)

Searching for “new creative ideas for administrative savings” or “administrative excess, redundancy or inefficiencies in state government” is a permanent quest, which should re-start every biennium when the Legislature convenes to decide the destination for some six billion slips of green paper.

From here, public participation wanes, as lawmakers have been given their orders: give Maine a responsible, efficient government. It’s the one thing all Mainers can agree upon, the survey found, which means these are tenets all legislators should take to heart.

Asking how to streamline government with an online “suggestion box,” though, is a nice touch.

But legislators should really use a mirror, instead.