Now's your chance to spend the city of Richmond's money
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Illustration: Rebecca Zisser
If you've ever thought you could do a better job at spending taxpayer money than your elected officials, now's your chance to prove it.
The big picture: Richmond set aside $3 million in the next fiscal cycle for residents to decide how to spend. Seriously.
State of play: The process, called participatory budgeting and dubbed "the people's budget," can be traced back to a successful experiment in Brazil in 1989. It started gaining traction in U.S. cities in 2019, Hollie Russon Gilman reported for Axios.
- That's also when Richmond first started working on the initiative, before pushing it to the backburner during the pandemic.
Zoom in: Now, the city is moving forward with the plan and even launched a website dedicated to it.
- Each council district will get $200,000 to spend on their district.
- The districts will also collectively decide how the remaining $1.2 million is allocated, with a focus on "communities in need," per the website.
Worth noting: City officials will be involved in the process — and to help locals understand the logistical side of government (and the real cost of things). A roundabout, for example, would blow through a chunk of the budget with its $25,000-$100,000 price tag, per city documents.
- Officials will also ensure folks stick to the steering commission's goals, like making sure projects serve the broader community and underrepresented or marginalized neighbors.
What's next: Richmond is in the early stages of this process and collecting interested names from every district to create nine committees of volunteers.
- Brainstorming and specific ideas are scheduled to happen this fall, with district and city-wide voting on proposals in the spring.
- Summer 2025 is when the first year's project will be funded.