NYC Civic Engagement Commission is encouraging New Yorkers to participate in the 3rd Annual “People’s Money” initiative, the City’s citywide participatory budgeting process.

 

The People’s Money uses mayoral expense funding for ideas to fund projects to benefit New York City communities. Projects must be implemented within one year and must be for expense funding, examples of which include:

🟢 programming, including but not limited to events, fairs, workshops, training courses and classes;

🟢 expanding or enhancing direct or social services (e.g. after-school programming, food distribution initiatives, etc);

🟢 community organizing or awareness and advocacy campaigns; and

🟢 research studies.

 

The People’s Money CANNOT fund:

🔴 ideas for capital projects involving the construction, reconstruction, acquisition, or installation of a physical public improvement, costing $50,000 or more, e.g. buying garbage trucks, reconstructing bridges, and building housing;

🔴 ideas that break New York City laws, spread hate or unfair treatment; or

🔴 projects that add to a city agency’s headcount, such as hiring more police officers or sanitation workers.

 

As part of the process, residents can submit ideas for local projects to address community needs. All New Yorkers aged 11 and older, regardless of immigration status, can decide how to spend part of the City budget, agency officials said.

 

The window for submission of ideas began on Oct. 10 and ends on Nov. 22. Ideas can be submitted online here, or at an in-person idea generation session near you. For more on this, read on.

As above, Phase 1 of the initiative for 2023-24 is the Idea Generation phase and runs from Oct. 11 to Nov. 22. Phase 2 is the Project Evaluation phase and runs from January to February 2025, during which committees of volunteers evaluate submitted ideas against equity criteria and develop projects to appear on ballots.

 

Phase 3 is the Voting phase, and runs from April to June 2025. Residents will vote online or in-person at a voting site in their neighborhoods. Phase 4 is the Implementation phase, and runs from June 2025 to July 2026. Winning projects will be announced, funded, implemented, and monitored.

 

To find and attend a local idea generation session near you, visit particpate.nyc.gov.