Mayor Tishaura Jones has asked citizens to help decide how best to use $500 million in federal stimulus funds. This is a variation of “participatory budgeting.” St. Louis could very well be placing a huge amount of money into the hands of city residents – and they will make some the most important financial decisions in its history.
Participatory budgeting is not new to St. Louis. The concept was introduced in the 2013 campaign of Michelle Witthaus, when she ran for alderwoman of the Sixth Ward. Witthaus lost to Christine Ingrassia, but the victor had the good political sense to understand that ward residents were intrigued by the idea. Witthaus and Ingrassia teamed to create a democratic process that engaged the ward in determining the best way to spend $100,000.
PB has its roots in Porte Alegre, Brazil in 1989. There are thousands of projects around the world now. The basic idea is to take people through a process and give them the power to decide how to spend public money based on the needs of their neighborhood or city.
Boston has one of my favorite PB programs, Youth Lead the Change. In 2013, Boston became the first city in the nation to empower its young people by inviting them to spend $1 million of the city’s capital budget. The kids have been rocking ever since.
PB is rich in civic lessons. You learn about budgets, which city departments do what, how to make assessments, how to appreciate other points of view and how to reach consensus. Those who are engaged get a glimpse of what it means to govern; they usually become committed stakeholders in the city’s future. It is democracy in action.
St. Louis’ needs are great. We are not only recovering from a pandemic, but we are also recovering from decades of neglect and poor public policy steeped in institutional racism. A half-billion dollars sounds like a lot of money, but it is a drop in the bottomless bucket of needs.
Let’s first look at the harm COVID-19 has done since this is the focus of the funds. Mayor Jones knows the American Rescue Act is a lifeline, but its scope is limited. This cannot be about spreading the funds around evenly. We must put some serious dollars down in a way that will make significant changes and impact lives in a real-world way.
The mayor has set up a stimulus advisory committee to give oversight on the process of getting and synthesizing our input. This a new thing for us, as previous mayors did not ask for our opinions and did not appreciate it when we gave them unsolicited.
I encourage us to step out of the shadows of complainin’ and doubtin’. Let’s start acting like bold, full-fledged citizens who have the right and responsibility to determine our city’s future.