Columbus City Council launched its new “participatory budget” pilot program, asking residents to suggest and vote on small projects using a small chunk of the city’s multi-billion dollar budget.
While the city’s budgeting process is already made available for residents to comment on and give input annually, the city council chose to earmark $9 million to dedicate to small, neighborhood-level projects. It’s a drop in the bucket compared to the city’s $2.7 billion total annual budget.
The effort comes at the same time as a group of residents back a similarly-named campaign to change how the city elects council members…