Powell River’s Citizen Budget simulator is now online for public input on the 2020 City of Powell River budget.
Citizen Budget is one of the public engagement tools used by the city to consult with residents and obtain useful feedback to help improve the budget decision-making process.
The city is in the preliminary stages of preparing the 2020 budget, with city departments submitting their budget requests for next year. The first draft of the five-year financial plan is expected to be presented for public input at the finance committee meeting on January 23, 2020. The deadline for the budget to be adopted is May 14, 2020.
“The feedback we get has a variety of benefits, such as assessing resident satisfaction with current service levels, assisting with the prioritization of resource allocation decisions in terms of financial forecasting, providing perspective into the difficult decisions that council faces, and informs and increases awareness about the city’s budget process,” stated acting manager of accounting services Ryan Youngman in a media release on December 3.
According to Youngman, prior to Citizen Budget, public input primarily consisted of feedback from a few residents who were attending budget meetings. For 2019, there were 636 Citizen Budget visitors, 130 responses and 467 comments provided. Citizen Budget is intended to get as many people as possible to participate. For people without access to a computer with internet at home, Powell River Public Library is a resource for free access. In addition, paper copies are available at the library and city hall.
“I’m sure the citizens will be chomping at the bit to give us some input on what they’d like to see done with their taxes in the coming year,” stated finance committee chair councillor George Doubt.
With the online module, participants may increase, decrease, or leave the operating budget of individual departments as is. If a participant increases the budget of a specific department, they would need to decrease the same amount from another department to balance their budget or adjust taxes accordingly.
Citizen Budget for 2020 is available at powellriver.citizenbudget.com.
