This document outlines a participatory budgeting assembly that educated participants about scaling up participatory budgeting in New York City. It provided information on the city budget process and participatory budgeting. Participants brainstormed project ideas and discussed how participatory budgeting could expand to more city council districts and agencies. The assembly aimed to empower community members to decide how to allocate millions from the city budget through a democratic process.
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Scaling up Participatory Budgeting as a Direct Democracy Tool in NYC
1. Scaling up Participatory Budgeting
as a Tool for
Direct Democracy in NYC
You decide how to spend
millions
of dollars from the city
budget!
2. Assembly GoalsAgenda
Get to know our neighbors
Learn about the City budget process,
participatory budgeting, and our city
Identify capital and expense project ideas
for our city
Gain knowledge about ideas for how Participatory
Budgeting could scale up in NYC under a new
administration
3. Assembly Agenda
1. Welcome and Icebreaker
2. Introduction to the City Budget &
Participatory Budgeting (Including a video!)
3. Questions & Answers
4. Breakout groups to brainstorm project ideas
5. Report-backs
6. Participatory Budgeting Expansion:
What It’ll Take & What It Can Be
4. City Budget Basics
City Budget runs on a Fiscal Year
from July 1st to June 30th
This year’s budget was
$70 Billion in Expense
$10 Billion in Capital
Generally the Mayor
issues a budget and
the Council approves it
5. Mandatory and Discretionary Spending
Mandatory Spending = > 80%
money that has to be spent
in a particular way
(e.g. committed contracts,
entitlement programs,
debt service, etc.)
Discretionary Spending = ~ 10%
money that can be spent however decided
on a yearly basis based on need/ interest
9. This Cycle PBNYC Districts
CD8: Melissa Mark-Viverito (D)
CD8: Melissa Mark-Viverito (D)
CD33: Stephen Levin (D)
CD33: Stephen Levin (D)
CD39: Brad Lander (D)
CD39: Brad Lander (D)
$12 million
$12 million
reaching
reaching
1.5 million
1.5 million
residents
residents
CD23: Mark Weprin (D)
CD23: Mark Weprin (D)
CD38: Carlos Menchaca (D)
CD38: Carlos Menchaca (D)
CD31: Donovan
CD31: Donovan
Richards (D)
Richards (D)
CD44: David Greenfield (D)
CD44: David Greenfield (D)
CD45: Jumaane D. Williams (D)
CD45: Jumaane D. Williams (D)
CD32: Eric Ulrich (R)
CD32: Eric Ulrich (R)
10. How does PB work in NYC?
5. Implementation
& Monitoring
2. Delegate Meetings
(Nov-Mar)
of projects
4. Community Vote
(Mar-Apr)
vote on projects
develop proposals
3. Project Expos
(Mar)
share proposals and get
community feedback
11. Why PB in NYC?
Our Goals:
1. Open Up Government
2. Expand Civic Engagement
3. Develop New Community Leaders
4. Build Community
5. Make Public Spending More Equitable
12. Last Cycle PBNYC Outcomes
14,000 people participated in the 8 districts
1,600 residents identified 1,700 project ideas
275+ budget delegates developed 122 full
project proposals
13,000 voters chose 45 winning projects
totaling $10 million
13. Who Participated?
New Change Agents
50% of people had not previously
worked for community change
Diverse Constituency
60% women
38% people of color
25% born outside of the US
Higher rates than regular elections
Among low-income people and POC
15. Sample Discretionary Projects
Eligible projects must cost:
$35,000
$100 million
CAPITAL EXAMPLES
EXPENSE EXAMPLES
Building a library branch
Building a community center
Renovating a school
Revamping a park
Subsidized childcare slots
More teachers
Job Corps slots
After school programs
16. Some Sample Costs of Items
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Playground Improvements
Laptops for 8 schools
Solar-powered greenhouse
Park Enhancement
Dog Run
10 Jobs Corps Position
10 Childcare Subsidies
$250,000
$450,000
$300,000
$350,000
$450,000
$250,000
$150,000
17. Small Group Discussion Agenda
• Introductions
• Review City Map & Ground Rules
• Idea Brainstorm
• Rank Top 3 Ideas
• Prepare for Report Back
18. Large Group Report Back & Next Steps
• Let’s hear some ideas that came up!
• What would happen next?
–
–
–
–
–
People would volunteer to be delegates
Budget delegates would meet in committees
Projects would be put on a ballot
The public would vote
Top projects would become part of the city budget
19. Ideas for the next Speaker
• Support to Expand Current Process
– Get more Council Members to participate!
• Nine (9) this cycle
• Twelve (12) more committed after recent elections
• That’s twenty-one (21) of fifty-one (51)
– Create Centralized Support Office in Council
– Provide Council Matching Funds for District Processes
– Allocate funds to be used for expense projects
20. Ideas for the next Mayor
• Expand beyond the current process
– Provide support for PB processes in Council
– Connect PB in Council with Additional NYC Budget Funds
– Pilot PB in a City Agency (NYCHA/ DYCD)
• Consider PB one tool to engage residents
–
–
Create Citizen Assemblies to decide few key issues
Create Office of Civic Engagement/ Community Democracy
21. Where do you see PB in NYC?
•
•
•
•
•
Take a minute
Think about your own vision
Write down your thoughts
Share with a neighbor
Bring it back for a wrap up
22. Ways to Get Involved!
Get involved
o Participate in or support a process
o Advocate for a new one to start
Help spread the word
Keep informed through our list-serves
Visit www.pbnyc.org!
Notes de l'éditeur
Leave this slide up as people arrive at the assembly
Thanks for coming to our Scaling up Participatory Budgeting in NYC Session.
We have an exciting two hours planned for the session.
Our goals today are…(read through goals on the slide)
Before we jump in, let’s see what the experience of people in the room is…(go through ice breaker questions)
Great! Looks like we have a good group and we’re ready to go.
Here’s an overview of the agenda for the session.
We’ll start with…(read off #2 and go through the agenda points quickly)
We’re aiming to both give you an opportunity today to see what Participatory Budgeting is about and get the feel of an actual Neighborhood Assembly AND we’re also hoping you’ll help us think through ways to get PB to a bigger scale here in NYC.
So, let’s put this all in context first.
A little information about the City Budget…
Money in the City Budget falls into two different categories…mandatory spending and discretionary spending.
Recent New York Times article quoted…
The city’s roughly $70 billion budget is a beast that slouches along, mostly blithe to the commands of mayors and legislators. About 75 percent is mandated or required by contract — things like social services, pension and fringe benefits, debt service, and much of what is spent on education. An additional 15 percent is essentially untouchable: the services of the Police, Fire and Sanitation Departments.
And, there are even two budgets in the city…a Capital Budget and and Expense Budget.
The capital budget to infrastructure (bricks and mortar).
The expense budget includes programs (people and services).
So, what’s Participatory Budgeting?
It’s a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget.
Typically it is done with a part of a budget - a portion of the discretionary budget that is up for grabs.
We’ll pause for a minute here and show you a short video to explain how it works…
PBNYC started in NYC as a process at the level of the City Council Districts. It began in 2011 in 4 council districts. Now we’re up to 9 districts, with two new districts joining this year. Each council member has committed at least $1 million to PB, and one (newly elected Council Member Carlos Menchaca) has committed at least $2 million. So in the nine districts around $12 million total will be decided through this process.
How does PB work?
It starts at Neighborhood assemblies, where the community identifies their needs and initial project ideas. At the assemblies, we also ask for some people to volunteer to serve as budget delegates.
Over the next few months, the Budget Delegates will turn the initial ideas into concrete proposals, with help from city agencies and Council Member staff.
In February and March, there are science-fair format Project Expos where the budget delegates get feedback on their proposals from the larger community.
After the budget delegates revise the projects one last time, they present the proposals to the whole district at a big public vote in late March or early April. At this vote, you will choose which projects you want for the district. The projects that get the most votes will be submitted to the City.
After the vote, we’ll monitor the proposals’ progress, to make sure they’re being implemented properly.
1. Open up Government: Allow residents a greater role in budgeting decisions, and inspire increased transparency in New York City government.
2. Expand Civic Engagement: Engage more people in politics and the community, especially young people, people of color, immigrants, low-income people, the formerly incarcerated, and other marginalized groups.
3. Develop New Community Leaders: Build the skills, knowledge, and capacity of community members.
4. Build Community: Inspire people to more deeply engage in their communities, and to create new networks and organizations.
5. Make Public Spending More Equitable: Generate spending decisions that are fairer and reflect the entire community’s needs, so resources go where they are needed most.
PBNYC’s pilot two years were a big success.
PBNYC’s pilot two years were a big success.
PBNYC’s pilot two years were a big success. And, we’re very excited about what we accomplished.
But…
$12 million is only a small part of the City Budget
There’s a lot more than City Council Discretionary Funds
Let’s imagine this process a bit bigger and broader…
PBNYC’s pilot two years were a big success.
PBNYC’s pilot two years were a big success.
PBNYC’s pilot two years were a big success.
Office of Civic Engagement could :
** Provide support for PB processes & grassroots governance initiatives in general
** Create citizen assemblies to decide a few key high profile issues (e.g. electoral reform, safety, disconnected youth engagement)
** Add in other engagement initiatives like incorporating non-citizen voting, encouraging more citizen participation in other venues (school councils, community policing, etc.), increasing voter turnout