Vote for Vallejo Budget Priorities

All Vallejo city residents over 14 years of age (that’s all of us who live in Hiddenbrooke) have until June 30, 2023 to vote online for up to 2 of 10 civic projects that have requested funding in the Vallejo Participatory Budgeting 8th budget cycle.  The project requests range in size from $33,000 to $300,000 and cover topics such as youth programs, building improvements, road repair, and care for the homeless.  View the project descriptions and vote online at https://www.myvallejo.com/pb8

In 2012, the Vallejo City Council established the first city-wide Participatory Budgeting process in the United States where residents directly engaged with their local government to develop and recommend projects as part of the annual budget.  The voting generates a prioritized list of recommendations for the City Council and it funds as many of the highest-ranking projects as possible based on the available budget allocation.  Over the past cycles, the City has funded 64 projects totalling $10.6 million.   

Brian Nakamoto, who moved to Hiddenbrooke from San Francisco in 2021, shared on Nextdoor that all of us should keep this process in mind when proposals open for Cycle 9 because it only took as few as 209 votes to earn funds in the Cycle 7 funding round.  He thinks that it’s not too soon to consider what initiatives Hiddenbrooke residents would like to see the City fund when the next budget cycle begins.  

Learn more about the budget process and see what got funding in previous cycles at https://www.cityofvallejo.net/our_city/departments_divisions/city_manager/participatory_budgeting/cycles and in the MS Powerpoint slides listed as the first bulleted item at  https://www.myvallejo.com/pb8/widgets/56676/documents .

Note: This Participatory Budgeting initiative is unrelated to the Hiddenbrooke Maintenance District and Hiddenbrooke Improvement District funds that maintain our common areas, and pay for improvements such as those underway in the entrance area.