People’s Budget Cleveland Case Study (2024)

In 2023, People’s Budget Cleveland launched a historic ballot initiative to direct the City of Cleveland to put aside funds equivalent to 2% of the City of Cleveland’s General Fund each year towards participatory budgeting. While the vote was razor thin, the measure did not pass. This campaign built on previous advocacy efforts to ask the city government to allocate $30.8 million of American Rescue Plan Act (“ARPA”) funds towards participatory budgeting, a democratic process in which community members directly decide how public funds are spent. While participatory budgeting is not yet part of Cleveland’s annual budgeting process, organizers learned many valuable lessons from these advocacy campaigns. These fights ignited public interest in the city’s budgeting process, built new alliances between local advocacy groups, and monumentally shifted the conversation. The people of Cleveland better understand now what it could look like to have meaningful decision-making power in their government, and local government electeds and officials have learned that they must better engage with their residents. The ground has also been opened up for future participatory budgeting advocacy in the city.