Buffalo's First Step Toward Participatory Budgeting

Participatory budgeting is an “idea whose time has come,” say its proponents. At the core of the practice is the belief that democratizing the budgeting process will make it more efficient and meaningful to the people with intimate knowledge of the challenges presented in their neighborhoods.

The Clean Air Coalition of Western New York, which has been the organizing force for bringing participatory budgeting to Buffalo, calls it “a different way to manage public money, and to engage people in government.”

The process in Buffalo will begin with a meeting, during which community members bring forth ideas for neighborhood improvement. A group of volunteers determines which projects are most viable, and writes proposals for those projects. Residents complete the process by voting. Implementation of the winning projects is overseen by a steering committee, which in the first year will be recommended by members of the Common Council, the Clean Air Coalition and the City Hall participatory budgeting committee. In following years, the steering committee will be composed of members of the community in which the projects are taking place.

Councilman Michael LoCurto introduced a resolution in July 2014 to establish a committee to implement participatory budgeting in Buffalo, at the time calling it “an empowering tool that the City of Buffalo can utilize to engage city of Buffalo residents on how to spend public money, while simultaneously strengthening communities and deepening democracy.”

The committee included representation from all nine council districts, the Office of Strategic Planning, and from other organizations and agencies in Buffalo.

Revenue for the winning projects, according to the committee report, could come from the community development block grant program, capital improvement revenue, and/or revenue the city gets from the casino. For now, Mayor Byron Brown will allot money from the city budget.

Natasha Soto at the Clean Air Coalition says advocates asked for $1 million to get the program off the ground, but the council and Brown’s administration struck a deal last week to allocate $150,000 for the process. She questioned whether the smaller figure was enough to get community members excited and, most importantly, involved, remarking that a $100,000 investment would result in a small project; the $150,000 figure would mean enough for only one or two such smaller projects in the first year of participatory budgeting.

For comparison, a recent participatory budgeting vote in Long Island City will bring its residents an updated bikeway at a cost of $500,000, transportation for senior citizens for $55,000 and playground upgrades with a price tag of $500,000. The initial proposed sum was $1 million, which went up.

A City Hall insider who wished to remain anonymous told The Public that Brown was reluctant to include participatory budgeting in the proposed budget because it represents a loss of control of part of the executive’s main source of power—money. He regards the budget as the “mayor’s money.”

“That’s flawed rhetoric,” said the source. “The money belongs to the community.”

Another objection the mayor’s office had, according to the source, is that planning workshops to gather community input for spending projects already exist, making participatory budgeting redundant. The source claims that these are typically poorly attended and that little effort is exerted by the mayor to encourage greater participation.

Soto of the Clean Air Coalition added that in the running up to the negotiated program Brown was “not against” but “not for” the proposal, noting that he was concerned about questions of implementation and appointments. The mayor’s office was not available for comment at the time of this writing.

With the money set aside it will now be up to community members to keep it going, as lackluster participation could cause lawmakers to pull funding in the future.

City & State reporter Justin Sondel contributed to this report.

An original version of this story appeared in The Public.