The People's Money is New York City's annual citywide Participatory Budgeting (PB) initiative where community members decide how to spend part of the city's budget. This democratic process is open to all New Yorkers, ages 11 and up, regardless of immigration status. The second cycle kicked off on October 10th, 2023 with 104 contracted partners supporting outreach and engagement efforts across the five boroughs. As of June 16th, 2024 voting was complete and the winning projects can be found under the Phase 3 button above.
History Of Participatory Budgeting and the Civic Engagement Commission
There are three Participatory Budgeting (PB) processes in New York City, one run by the DOE Civics For All Program in select schools, one run by the City Council, and the citywide process run by the Civic Engagement Commission. PB was originally brought to NYC in 2011 by four City Council Members in a process called PBNYC that invited residents to decide how to spend their public funds. This year, 29 out of 51 City Council members are participating in PBNYC.
In November 2018, close to one million New Yorkers voted in a citywide referendum proposed by the 2018 Charter Revision Commission for a ballot initiative creating the CEC and mandating it to implement a yearly citywide participatory budgeting program utilizing Mayoral expense funding, which was branded as "The People's Money." This mandate can be found in Chapter 76 of the NYC Charter.
In September of 2022, the Mayor and the CEC launched the first citywide cycle of The People’s Money in collaboration with 82 contracted community partners. Thousands of residents submitted ideas, developed ballots, and ultimately voted on projects. The 46 projects with the most votes were funded a total $5 million to address community needs as identified by residents, with an overwhelming focus on youth and mental health services. These programs are now in the process of being implemented by contracted partners.
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