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OUR MONEY, OUR CITYParticipatory Budgeting inGreensboro, North Carolina

Fund for Democratic Communities http://f4dc.org/projects/pb

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What is it?

Participatory budgeting (PB) is a democratic process in whichcommunity members directly decide how to spend part of apublic budget.

PB is not simply consultation by elected officials with citizensabout a pre-determined budget proposal.

It is a process that allows and encourages citizens to be activein thinking about, researching, developing & implementing a

public budget.

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What are the benefits? Gives community members a say: Ordinary people have more voice and

they get to make real decisions.

Makes for better and more equitable decisions: Local residents know bestwhat they need, and budget dollars are distributed to communities with thegreatest needs.

Develops active and democratic citizens: Community members, staff, andofficials gain more understanding of complex political issues and communityneeds.

Builds communities and strengthens community organizations: Peopleget to know their neighbors and feel more connected to their city.

Connects politicians and constituents: Politicians build closer

relationships with their constituents. Community members get to know theirelected officials & local governments.

Makes government more accountable and efficient: When communitymembers decide spending in public assemblies, there are feweropportunities for corruption, waste, or costly public backlash.

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How itworks.Community members make budget decisions through an annual series of localassemblies & meetings. There are many models of participatory budgeting, butmost follow a basic process: diagnosis, discussion, decision-making,implementation, & monitoring.

1. Residents identify local priority needs, generate ideas to respond to theseneeds, & choose budget representatives for each community.

2. These representatives discuss the local priorities & develop concrete projectsthat address them, together with experts.

3. Residents vote for which of these projects to fund.

4. The government implements the chosen projects.

5. Residents monitor the implementation of budget projects.

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Democracy in Action! ParticipatoryBudgeting in Chicago's 49thWard

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Canwe dothis in Greensboro?

People are ready to get involved deciding how to spend tax dollars inour city. Benefits from a PB process here include:

Being a trend-setter. Greensboro would be the first city in theSoutheast to develop a PB process & potentially the first US cityto make PB a city-wide effort.

More thinkers and voices in the budget process would generatemore creative solutions to our financial problems.

Opening up city government to citizens will encourage newcandidates for elected office.

Greater public transparency and engagement promotes greaterlevels of trust in our local government.

Elected officials who support and work with a PB process may seesubstantial increases in voter support.

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The Challenge

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Deviseand ImplementaSetof Strategies that:

Get us ameaningful potof Citymoneytoworkwith

Adapt PB processes toworkwell inthe GSO context

Educate/activatecitizens fromacross thecity sothey:

o Understand PBo Create public demand for PBo Participate inthe PB process

In Neighborhood Assemblies, identifying localneeds &priorities

AsD

elegates, whotransformcommunity priorities intospecific proposals, and putthe PB Ballottogether As Voters onthe proposals

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Particular Greensboro Challenges

GSO is morethan 5 times as big as Ward 49 in Chicago

GSO is broken up into 5 separate political divisions, eachslightlylargerthanWard 49

GSO has over 200 distinctneighborhoods, witha huge

diversityofwealth, race, interests, history and cultureofpoliticalengagement

Ifwehavethe same proportionofresidents participateasinWard 49, wed have 6,000 people voting on PB BallotDay!

And its all gotto be doneonatimelinethatconnects tothe City's budgetcycle

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Solets get started!

Break into small groups Briefly introduce yourselves to each other Brainstorm: Given these strategic needs and challenges,

whats your thinking about how to bring Participatory

Budgeting to Greensboro? Write down every idea on chart paper If you have questions, write them on separate sticky notes,

and place on the Questions sheet Report-back to the full group

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Whose Process Is This?