Voting is underway through September 30 in Albuquerque’s District 6 on how to spend $1.7 million on infrastructure projects. The voting is part of a democratic process known as participatory budgeting, in which community members propose projects and then vote on their favorites, deciding collectively how to spend ~1% of the city’s annual infrastructure budget.
This is the second year of the participatory budgeting process in District 6, which is represented by City Councilor Nichole Rogers. “I heard from constituents that they’ve given feedback to the city and we don’t do anything with it,” says Rogers, “so we’re trying to change that.”
District 6’s participatory budgeting is a pilot project ⎯ the only known such project in the state ⎯ but that means the only people eligible to vote must live, work, or study in District 6.
But middle schoolers — age 11 and older — can vote, too.
“We had some hard core ‘You must be 18 to vote’ people, bless their hearts,” says Rogers, “but we debated and had consensus that if we were to allow kids to put in project ideas, we should also allow them to vote on those ideas.”
At least one of the projects proposed this year came from kids: a skate park.
Last year, the program resulted in a grower’s market. Named “The People’s Market,” the ribbon cutting was earlier this summer, June 9. But so far it has not opened.
Voting for this year’s project proposals ends September 30.
