What if you were given a chance to vote on where your city spends its money?
There are many cities or wards doing exactly that. – people in the community annually choosing whether to spend money fixing sidewalks, paving streets, putting up an art installation, or maybe sprucing up a park.
It’s called "participatory budgeting." This week officials from the Cambridge, Massachusetts budget department are in Michigan talking with Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor officials about how it works.
Cambridge started using participatory budgeting a couple of years ago.
Michelle Monsegur is one of those Cambridge officials.
She joined us today to talk about the participatory budgeting process and what happens when you let the community decide where to spend their money.
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