CLEVELAND — Voters in Cleveland will have the opportunity to cast their ballots in November for a charter amendment that would allocate 2% of the city's budget (roughly $14 million) every year for residents to decide how to spend it.
The charter amendment is the result of months of work by the grassroots coalition People's Budget Cleveland (PB CLE), which believes that "residents deserve real power to make real decisions about how public money gets spent in their neighborhoods." According to a release from PB CLE, signatures from over 6,400 registered Cleveland voters were collected in just a 45 day span. On July 10, the coalition submitted 10,582 signatures from Cleveland residents with the Clerk of Council to get on the November ballot.
Under the People's Budget charter amendment, Cleveland residents, including unregistered voters and people ages 13+, would vote on neighborhood level and citywide projects. An appointed steering committee of residents across the city would be tasked with planning a 12-month community process that allows residents to submit project ideas and then vote on them.
"Importantly, all decisions about which projects get funded are made by Cleveland residents, who can vote online or in-person over a multi-week voting period," PB CLE adds.
PB CLE says the amount of money residents spend through "the People’s Budget" would start at a value equal to 1% of the general fund, then increase each year until it maxes out at an amount equal to 2% of the general fund. The coalition says half the money can come from the capital budget, which is separate from the general fund.
On Wednesday, Cleveland City Council acknowledged the certification of the PB CLE initiative, but sent out a cautionary warning about the "devastating impact" that could result from passage of the amendment.
"Voters will decide whether to generate a $14 million annual budget deficit and reallocate the funding to future projects that would be decided upon by a to-be-determined and unelected group of people," the council wrote in its release. "The $14 million that would be reallocated could lead to massive layoffs and have a devastating impact on the city."
Council stated that a reallocation of $14 million could have the following consequences:
- Prevent hiring roughly 140 police officers "at a time when our Division of Police is dramatically short-staffed."
- Eliminate the entire Department of Public Health
- Eliminate all staff from the Division of Recreation ($10,537,247), the entire Department of Aging ($1,868,592), and $2M for salting winter streets
- Eliminate roughly half of the EMS staff
- Lose 13% of the Division of Fire staff
- Nearly eliminate the entire Division of Waste Collection staff
- Eliminate the entire Department of Building and Housing - leading to no inspections, Code Enforcement, or permitting
"Council welcomes the opportunity for residents to offer constructive feedback to building a better Cleveland," said Cleveland City Council President Blaine Griffin in a statement. "However, I believe the proposal presented will have devastating impacts on public safety and services in our city. Council will work tirelessly in the coming months to communicate how this initiative, if approved, will negatively impact Clevelanders.”
Additionally, the council says the $14 million requested for participatory budgeting "is more than the City currently pays for many critical services, including Aging, Public Health, and the Building & Housing Department." It is also "greater than the $12 million currently allocated for repaving and repairing streets in the entire city."
In a statement to 3News, PB CLE rejects the council's claims.
"Cleveland City Council's statement on the People's Budget amendment getting certified for the ballot is full of misleading and incorrect information. Council is using scare tactics to dissuade residents from having real power to make real decisions about how public money gets spent. Where was this list of scare tactics when billionaires and wealthy real estate developers got millions in public dollars for stadiums and luxury condos? The People’s Budget charter amendment sets a clear process for how 2% of our budget gets determined directly by residents through a process used all over the country to increase civic education and resident engagement."
