Knoxville Citizens
Want a Say in
Spending their Money
By: Lisa Slade
The Knoxville Voice
June 26, 2008 - The night before Knox County Commission met to make their final decisions on community grants, a separate group of citizens gathered for a colloquium on participatory budgeting. This group was smaller — only seven people attended the potluck meeting — and attendees didn’t have a specific agenda, only a desire for a more citizen-inclusive budgeting process in Knoxville.
Formal participatory budgeting, a process which empowers residents to directly plan the use of government funds in their communities, began in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1989. Porto Alegre, with a population of nearly 1.4 million, is one of the largest cities in Brazil. Every year, thousands of citizens gather to determine the city’s budget. They begin in one of 16 regional meetings addressing issues of transportation, education, street paving, utility infrastructure and more. They determine the city’s most pressing needs for the year, and then each region selects delegates to attend a citywide meeting. Citizens now control more than 20 percent of the total budget there.
Participatory budgeting is part of the larger framework of a solidarity economy, a form of economy embracing sustainability and cooperation, as well as social equity for all people.
The June 17 meeting evolved after several Knoxvillians attended a solidarity economy workshop at the Highlander Center in New Market May 29 and May 30, returning eager for discussion and potential implementation of the concepts they’d studied.
Liz Veazey, Regional Campus Coordinator for the Southern Energy Network, attended the Highlander workshop and organized the potluck discussion on participatory budgeting in the wake of the Knox County grant controversy.
“There have been so many problems with corruption,” Veazey says. “I thought, ‘Maybe we could try to get a hold of part of the budget.’ I think there’s a lot of potential in that. It gives communities more control over their resources, but also helps people understand how the government works and makes it more accountable and transparent. People feel like they’re part of something.”
Discussion mostly centered on locating a starting point in the Knox County or city of Knoxville budgets. The conclusion? There isn’t an easy place to begin, but all attendees agree now is a good time for it.
“We need to take advantage of this momentum,” Nina Gregg says. “Anything controversial helps give the power back to the people.”
The same seven will meet again in July, and invite anyone interested in learning more to join their cause for more citizen participation in local budgeting.
