This article is written by Martha Fedorowicz, policy analyst at the Urban Institute, a think tank based in Washington D.C., and former special projects administrator for the City of Lansing’s department of neighbourhoods and citizen engagement.

This article was shortlisted in Apolitical's 2020 American Public Servant Writing Competition.

On a cold winter night in 2018, about thirty residents of Lansing, Michigan, gathered at Kelly’s Bar. Unlike most nights at the bar, they weren’t just there to share a drink with friends. They were there to learn about the city budget.

Called "Beer and Budgets", this was the third event in a participatory budgeting (PB) series where the mayor and staff from the department of neighbourhoods and citizen engagement (DNCE) taught residents about the city’s budget and asked for their feedback on key spending priorities.

To many city officials and residents alike, engaging around the budgeting process might seem like a futile exercise. Most residents don’t have the knowledge of fiscal policy to be helpful and don’t understand the complex trade-offs most governments have to make when budgeting. And the traditional structure of city government departments often doesn’t reflect a resident’s lived experience.

But what if residents had enough knowledge about a city budget that they could be helpful? And what if every city could actually streamline work in a way that both responds to resident demands and more effectively meets resident needs?

Deconstructing and reconstructing the budget

Lansing is a city of 114,000 people and the capital of the state of Michigan. As in many cities across the US, in Lansing the mayor typically presents their proposed annual budget to the city council in March.

The council then has two months to deliberate before adopting the budget for the next fiscal year. During the deliberation period, residents are invited to share their input on the budget. “The problem with this process,” says Andi Crawford, chief innovation officer and DNCE director for the city of Lansing, “is that by then, the budget is already pretty baked. It’s too late to get any real public input.”

Government fiscal policy is largely amorphous to most people — they don’t know how decisions are made, what can be funded, or even how much money government costs

Like many other aspects of traditional policy-making, the municipal budget process isn’t designed for real resident engagement. Government fiscal policy is largely amorphous to most people — they don’t know how decisions are made, what can be funded, or even how much money government costs. When both sides fail to connect, funding decisions may not accurately reflect residents’ priorities or needs.

When Andy Schor was elected mayor in 2018, he saw the need for the Lansing city government to be more inclusive and transparent about what it does. As part of his first executive order, he created a new department of neighbourhoods and citizen engagement and charged it with opening up a dialogue between the government and its residents. During her first year as DNCE director, Crawford decided to take on the budget.

“The budget has always been a public document, but we needed to have a commitment to the openness of the budgeting process,” says Crawford. “What was lacking was a translation of the budget document and why it matters to our citizens.”

The city’s civics teacher

From late 2018 to early 2019, the city hosted four participatory budgeting nights where city officials and DNCE staff taught residents about the city’s budget.

Each night started with a discussion about community values, then transitioned to a lesson about where taxes go (most residents were surprised that only 35 cents of every dollar they pay in taxes goes to the city) and how much of the budget is actually discretionary. Once residents understood how much money the city had to work with, they were given Lego and asked to build their "ideal" city budget based on the priorities they stated at the beginning of the workshop.

Each colour of Lego represented a different category of spending (i.e. community development, parks, police) and each pip on the Lego represented $1 million.

After-school programs are a safety intervention. Climate change and resilience programs are public safety issues

“It helped us to understand how people talk about the budget,” says Crawford. “For example, when we talk about safety, we typically talk about fire, police and EMS services. What was clear from people in the audience was that they think of it in a much more comprehensive way. After-school programs are a safety intervention. Climate change and resilience programs are public safety issues.”

Following the first year of PB nights, the city decided to make some pretty big changes to address the challenges they encountered. First, they switched to what is known as program-based budgeting — a form of budgeting where spending is distributed by functional area rather than by department. “We didn't necessarily change what we funded, but we changed how we group things and how we talk about them,” says Crawford. “We took thirteen different business units and compressed those into things people care about.”

Next, instead of presenting the budget as an almost fully prepared document in March, the mayor now releases a "State of the Budget" in the fall and the DNCE follows up with some easy-to-read documents that explain how the city spends its money (instead of the usual 160-page budget document). In 2020, the city is also planning to engage an external company to assist with gathering a broader response on the budget.

The city hopes that all of this work leads to “a levelling experience”, from which both residents and the city can benefit. By communicating the city budget in a way that aligns with what people care about and giving residents time to shape the document, Lansing residents will be better positioned to contribute to local policy-making, and government can become more responsive to resident needs.

A commitment to openness

Not all governments can or will shift to program-based budgeting. But there is a lot that can be done to make city budgeting a more open process. Cities can start by hosting general informational events for residents to learn more about the budget and the budgeting process. Someone who is not a budget expert should vet the agenda and content for the event so as to ensure that the experience is as user-friendly as possible.

As a next step, cities can introduce components of the budget to the public and request input and feedback that can be applied well before it goes to city council for approval. There are many creative ways to solicit this input — trying various methods and seeing which one works best for your community is a great way to start. Budget documents can also be made more easily accessible and cities can collaborate with local non-profits, community groups and schools to disseminate these resources and help encourage participation in the budgeting events.

Whatever a city chooses to do, what matters most, as Crawford says, “is a commitment to openness.” Anyone who starts with a commitment to transparency and an authentic desire to increase civic engagement is sure to succeed over time. — Martha Fedorowicz

(Picture Credit: Unsplash)

Make sure to share your own thoughts with the author by leaving a comment below