“We had never taken our budget on the road before. In the past, residents would have to come to us at our Tuesday meeting. The public responded very positively to this change. It also created more balance in how these budget-related issues were being reported in the media. People were happy and impressed that we went out to the community to educate them and get their input, and it helped to open people’s eyes to the fact that we are all in the same boat.”

County Supervisor, Central Valley

Public engagement in city and county budgeting throughout California takes many forms. Included here are stories that illustrate a number of different approaches that local officials use to involve residents in local budgeting.

We have organized these examples in six categories. Each link below will take you to a set of Public Engagement in Budgeting Stories related to a particular approach to public engagement in local budgeting. Some stories could fall into one or more of these categories; however we have tried to assign them to the category that is most appropriate.

• Budget Education and Outreach Stories
• Budget Survey Stories
• Budget Advisory Committee Stories
• Budget Workshop Stories
• Budget Deliberative Forum Stories
• Working with Existing Neighborhood Councils and Committees Stories

These approaches may be implemented separately, but in practice they are often used in strategic combination. For example, public education and outreach is an essential component of almost any budget workshop or forum.