Participatory budgeting for Columbus, but not Cleveland

• After all, a grassroots local organization attempted to pilot an identical program in 2023 that was quashed by Cleveland City Council, which warned that letting the public vote on spending city dollars would imperil services.

The big picture: "Participatory budgeting" is a process by which residents, rather than elected officials, directly decide how a small portion of city funds will be used.

Zoom in: Columbus allocated $9 million from its capital budget and created a steering committee to establish protocols and criteria for assessing ideas.

What they're saying: The Columbus City Council has championed the system. Nick Bankston, the finance committee chair, tells Axios he was inspired by how New York City got voters involved.

• "I started to go down a rabbit hole and learn what participatory budgeting is, and it's this amazing thing they have in other cities."

Reality check: Not in Cleveland. Here, it was framed by leaders as an effort to dismantle leadership structures that could become a "vehicle for gentrification."

Flashback: After Cleveland City Council rejected a $5 million participatory pilot with federal stimulus funds, the organization PB Cle took the measure to the ballot box, where it was aggressively opposed by council and organized labor.

• Voters narrowly rejected the measure.
• The Cleveland proposal would have allocated slightly more annually (about $14 million) than Columbus, but was similarly premised on civic participation.

💭 Sam's thought bubble: The dire warnings from council about threats to services are questionable in retrospect.

• Voters could be asked this year to cough up additional tax dollars to fund essential services like public transit and health and human services — plus sports stadiums. (The services were imperiled regardless, in other words.)
• It's a bummer to see civic participation programs like this one lauded elsewhere but denigrated locally.