We the People Can Control Our City Money — 3 Steps for Participatory Budgeting

by Hank Pellissier

this speech was delivered to an Our Revolution East Bay meeting in February 2023

Do you live in a city that has the same wretched problems year after year no matter who gets elected?

Do you want progressive reforms, but your city council is too timid, corrupt or lazy to adopt them?

Are you amazed other cities do incredible projects? Are you disgusted that your city is stuck, wallowing in inequity because it lacks courage and imagination? Do you want a cure for your civic frustration?

Participatory Budgeting can be the answer. The name is dull but the concept is radical because Participatory Budgeting is Direct, Pure Democracy

Citizens deciding how the budget is spent

Citizens grabbing the purse-strings of government

Citizens by-passing “representatives” who don’t voice their concerns

Citizens enjoying the responsibility of creating their own habitat

Citizens guiding their neighborhoods towards the future they want

Citizens directly creating and funding their own ideas, their own projects to tackle urban dilemmas like housing, policing, employment, education, recreation, health

Participatory Budgeting — Where did it come from?

Brazil 1989 the city of Porto Alegre, population 1.2 million. The Workers Party won the city election — they were critical of representative democracy so they decided to hand power over to the people.

Porto Alegre government officials gave every single city resident the power to individually decide how their specific $1,200 was spent.

What was the result?

The health and education budget increased from 13% to 40% in ten years

The number of schools quadrupled

Road-building in poor neighborhoods went up 500 percent

New public housing units that sheltered 1,700 in 1986, sheltered 27,000 in 1989

Infrastructure (electricity and sewage systems) was hugely improved

Poverty was alleviated, the concept of “citizenship” was transformed

5,556 projects were initiated by citizens, 82% were completed

Tax delinquency was reduced; 39% more tax dollars were collected

What projects were funded or not funded with Participatory Budgeting?

Social equity plans were prioritized over upper class economic gains. Example: a five-star hotel was rejected, but a public park was funded.

Why did these changes happen?

Representative Budgeting favors the wealthy and their friends. Participatory Budgeting gives poor people a decision-making voice. Participatory Budgeting promotes economic, social, and political equality.

What happened after Porto Alegre?

Participatory Budgeting spread throughout the world, it is now active in 1,500 cities, towns and school districts

In Brazil it was activated in 140 cities and towns

In Bolivia and Peru it is implemented in all local governments

In Europe, it is in dozens of cities notably in Spain, Portugal, Italy

It is also in India, South Korea, China, South Africa

In the USA it is active or is being experimented with in New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle.

In Northern California it is either active or in planning stages in Vallejo, Sacramento, Merced, San Francisco, and Oakland

Participatory Budgeting is only being examined in Oakland - no other cities or towns in San Francisco East Bay - Surprised?

SF East Bay is viewed as one of the most progressive regions in the USA, right? There should be “People Power” here - right? So why is this region - Alameda and Contra Costa county - excepting Oakland - so far behind the rest of the world in Participatory Budgeting?

I said earlier the name Participatory Budgeting is boring. So let’s call it, from now on — the People’s Budget.

How can the cities and towns in Alameda and Contra Costa County - get a People’s Budget?

It seems unlikely the city officials will just hand it over to all the people in our counties like they did in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

It seems the people will have to grab the money for themselves.

We need a role model, and we have one - our Oakland neighbors. Oakland does not have a People’s Budget yet but there’s a group there that’s working on it, called the Community Democracy Project.

They provide an excellent path forward. They advocate two ideas I very much like:

1) voting residents are defined as 16 years old and older

2) Geographic areas of 2,500–5,000 people should be formed into Neighborhood Assemblies, for “sharing of information, collective conversation, and decision-making”

I promised in the title to this essay “3 Steps” so now I’ll describe how every municipality in our counties can acquire a People’s Budget:

#1 Organize a Strong Coalition. To get a People’s Budget, it is important to enlist the support of all the dozens of progressive local groups. Our Revolution needs to ally with everyone large and small: Democratic Socialists of America, East Bay Gray Panthers, college and high school student groups. The People’s Budget needs a long, impressive, intimidating list of supporting organizations.

#2 Draft a Proposal & Take it to our City Halls. The majority of People’s Budgets around the world only control a small percentage of their city funds. Porto Alegre controlled 17–21 percent; most control far less. I suggest starting with 10 percent because it is not terribly threatening. Contact local media and tell them we will deliver a People’s Budget Proposal to our mayors and city council members. Deliver the proposals and ask for endorsements. Let them know our Strong Coalition will only support their re-elections if they endorse the People’s Budget. Negotiate if necessary.

#3 Perfectly Implement the People’s Budget and Ask for a Larger Percentage Each Succeeding Year. If Alameda and Contra Costa citizens are happy with the changes instigated by the 10 percent allocated to the People’s Budget, they will be motivated to assume responsibility for increasingly larger percentages. Ask for 20 percent next time, then 30 percent, and keep asking for more, as long as the People’s Budget is successfully engaging the citizens to implement reforms and projects that improve all the cities and towns in Alameda and Contra Costa county.

Let’s try this, let’s have Our Revolution lead the way in the USA, let’s guide our progressive region towards empowering its citizenry with innovative democracy.