Budget Events 2022

In the summer of 2022, we (HSGD and our friend Grace Thorvilson) applied for and received a grant to engage community members in the city's participatory budgeting process.  We were supported by my friend Mayra Gonzalez, who was a consultant for the city's participatory budgeting process and our friend Roshan Bliss, another participatory budgeting consultant, led the HSGD group in the PB discussion.  We wanted to broaden participants' perspectives beyond the amount that was allocated for participatory budgeting, and begin to see that the entire city budget is supposed to be (according to the charter!) a participatory budgeting process.

Following the participatory budgeting event, we wanted to do something that was a bit more pointed at engaging community members in the city budget process, so Budget and Beers at Stoney's on Lincoln was born!  Thank you to the fine folks at Stoney's who always take such good care of us.  At this event, we create poster-sized images of the city's General Fund, Expenditures, Grants and some line item pages.  We hang these posters on the wall and ask folks as they walk in to use sticky notes to give their observations about these pages.  Then, we talk as a group about the city budget process (outlined in the charter), and split people into groups based on issue areas of interest (housing, transit, police and policing, environment, healthcare, etc.).  In their groups citizens review the presentations from each city department given to council members (we print out the powerpoint presentations) and then, acting like council members, groups offer their budget amendments.  We also educate the group on how they can advocate to their council members to ask them to make these changes.