Why you should support the Cleveland People's Budget
It's a rare opportunity to take some power from politicians and return it to the streets.
Welcome to your Monday dispatch of The Rooster. We’re doing something a little different today with a quick interview with Molly Martin, the campaign director for the Cleveland People’s Budget, a piece of potential legislation that’s headed to the city’s ballot in November.
You can learn more about the People’s Budget and read the amendment in question at their official website. You can follow the People’s Budget on Twitter, and help realize its goal of raising $7,500 through its Act Blue account.
For the uninitiated, what, exactly, is the People's Budget and what was the process like for getting on the ballot?
People’s Budget Cleveland (PB CLE) is a grassroots coalition of Cleveland residents that formed in Spring 2021 to advocate for residents to have the power to make real decisions about how public money gets spent in their community using a process called participatory budgeting, or a People’s Budget (PB).
After working closely with the Mayor and four members of CityCouncil to seek a legislation path, PB CLE launched a ballot initiative campaign in May to enshrine a People’s Budget in Cleveland’s City Charter. After the Council President and remaining council members decided to table the legislation, PB CLE pursued the most direct route to determine the fate of PB in the city.
The charter amendment on the November ballot would institutionalize PB as a direct democracy tool, ensuring Cleveland residents have the power to make decisions about how to spend two percent of the city budget.
In six weeks, PB CLE organized 184 supporters who gathered 10,582 signatures. With 6,411 valid signatures certified by the BOE, we're headed to the November ballot.
During the signature collection phase, PB CLE registered 900 people to vote and encouraged voters to vote “no” on Issue 1.
Why exactly are people like Cleveland mayor Justin Bibb, who I understand backed this during his campaign, so pissed about it?
The initial PB legislation that got tabled was only $5 million for a one-time pilot that would have been funded from the one-time $511 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars that Cleveland received.
The People's Budget charter amendment would be for two percent of the city's budget EVERY year. The city's general fund is ~$711 million, so this is a $14 million mandate.
We didn't name a source of funding in the legislation, which means it'll be a political process for the administration to name cuts (cough cough, council discretionary funding????)
Why is this a threat to the likes of the Haslams of Browns ownership and other sports-owning billionaires with stadiums in the city?
Half the money for the PB fund can come from the city's general fund, and half could come from the capital budget.
What's key about this is that our capital budget is funded by debt. We're trying to box out future handouts to private interests.
If the city council and mayor say we can't "afford" PB, then how can we afford to issue bonds to billionaires who socialize costs to Clevelanders and then privatize the profits?
The PB charter amendment includes a clause that prohibits City Council from approving the projects voted on by residents. Normally council approves anything greater than $50,000. In order for residents to trust the process, we didn't think it was right for Council to have veto power over the $14 million.
If the People’s Budget manages to pass, what do you guys envision as the next step in the process?
Ummm, plan our next campaign to do "payment in lieu of taxes" for our largest nonprofit, the Cleveland Clinic. Lol. But really...
The most disappointing piece of the legislation IMO is that although the steering committee is formed through a public application process, ultimately the mayor appoints five people and city council picks five, and one person is a city staffer hired to focus exclusively on shepherding the process.
Our vision for PB won't be fully exciting until the council is restructured and more progressive people get seats. Until then, PB CLE will serve as a watchdog to see through implementation.
The amount of money residents spend through PB will increase each year until it maxes out at an amount equal to 2% of the General Fund. The chart below summarizes the amount allocated to PB each year.
The charter amendment creates a resident Steering Committee that acts as a board of elections for a People’s Budget. They will write the guidelines for how voting will work, and how to engage residents. The Steering Committee will create a process where residents can vote on how funds are spent on projects in Cleveland neighborhoods.
It must do so in an equitable way, which means neighborhoods where residents have lower incomes and have survived redlining and other systemic inequities will see more dollars per person.
The Steering Committee must ensure every resident has a chance to vote for city-wide projects as well as projects specific to a neighborhood or neighborhood cluster. Residents will vote by neighborhood, or by cluster of neighborhoods. Voting will not happen by ward, since wards are political lines that change every so often.
Anything else you think people should know about it?
The People’s Budget charter amendment would make Cleveland the first city in the country to institutionalize a funded PB process in a city charter. PB is a chance to transform the current decision-making system to one that allows everyday residents to come together and decide how to improve their neighborhoods and city. It is also a way to fundamentally change how young people conceive of political participation.
Be sure to follow Molly Martin on Twitter.
THOSE WMDs. Inside Michael Lewis’ hero factory… Here’s what happens to all the stuff we return… Why Bill Watterson, the creator of Calvin & Hobbes, vanished… A peek into Japanese hot springs… In the child’s best interest: Is the mother or father to blame?