Mecklenburg County issued the following announcement on Nov. 17.
Mecklenburg County’s budget public engagement for Fiscal Year 2023 gets underway today with the launch of its Resident Budget Priority Survey and its new pilot program – PB Meck for Participatory Budgeting – giving residents more ways to get involved in the budget process!
The Resident Budget Priority Survey, in its fourth year, is available now until Dec. 20. The survey allows residents to share their budget priorities with County leaders by allowing residents to rank eight categories funded by the County in the order they feel is most important. Residents can also provide feedback on categories they feel are overfunded or underfunded.
Survey results will be shared with the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners during their annual retreat in January. County Manager Dena R. Diorio will use the results to assist with funding decisions for services such as affordable housing and homeless services, Public Health, Park and Recreation, MECK Pre-K, workforce development, court buildings and jails, environmental services and more.
Last year, 4,303 surveys were completed for fiscal year 2022. The $2 billion dollar adopted budget for Fiscal Year 2022 invested more than $51.4 million in new funding for the Board’s priorities and $668.9 million total in County services.
The FY2023 Resident Budget Priority Survey may be found on MeckNC.gov. Paper copies are also available in English and Spanish at libraries across Mecklenburg County, the Community Resource Center located at 3205 Freedom Dr. Suite 1000 and recreation centers across the County.
And new for FY2023 – Mecklenburg County residents now have an opportunity to turn their ideas into proposals, to positively impact their community through PB Meck, Mecklenburg County’s Participatory Budgeting pilot program.
Participatory Budgeting allows residents to determine how to best address the needs of their communities by turning ideas into actual project proposals, voting on which projects to fund, with winning projects being funded by the County.
Residents will work with community volunteers representing each County Commissioner district to identify projects. Funding will be divided evenly among the County Commissioners’ districts. Residents across the County will offer their ideas. Ideas will be vetted by County staff and then voted on by County residents. Winning proposals will be funded with the expectation that all projects will be complete within 18 months.
Applications open Nov. 22 to join the volunteer team. There are 10 – 12 available volunteer positions for each County district.
Original source can be found here.
Alerts Sign-up