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Participatory Budgeting

Play Your Part: Your Money, Your Community, Your Vote!

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. Every year New Yorkers vote to decide what projects to implement in their communities. Currently our Implementation RFI is open! We are looking for partners to implement 20 expense projects that received the most votes in June 2024!

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CEC, dollar sign, and phrase, the people's money

What is the People's Money?

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 community partners supporting outreach and engagement efforts across the five boroughs.

How does The People's Money work?

Text depicting the multiple phases of the people's money process from phase 1 Idea Generation – 2 Project Development – 3 Citywide Voting – to 4 Project Implementation.

History Of Participatory Budgeting and the Civic Engagement Commission

There are two Participatory Budgeting (PB) processes in New York City. 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 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. The results from this cycle have been published online. Find out here which programs will be funded in your borough or neighborhood. To view detailed vote totals for each ballot, click here!