NYC City Council kicks off participatory budgeting

City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito. Photo by William Alatriste for the New York City Council

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The New York City Council’s annual process that gives voters more of a say in spending the city’s budget is getting under way.

The council on Monday is kicking off its yearly participatory budget procedure. Twenty-seven of the council’s 51 districts are involved.

Residents in those districts will be able to vote on how a certain segment of the municipal budget is spent.

More than $30 million will be distributed to local capital programs like park repairs and technology improvements.

A year ago, more than 51,000 New Yorkers voted on how to distribute the funding.

City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito called the program “a truly grassroots and democratic tool.”

After a series of public hearings, the winning programs will be selected in the spring. The program began in 2011.

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