NYC’s The People’s Money: Civic Engagement Commmission Discusses Borough Assemblies Of New Yorkers Just Like You Who Help Decide Participatory Budget Projects

January 31, 2026 NYC Civic Engagement Commission 0 Business, Charity, Economy And Finances, Morality and Ethics, SI Communities, Staten Island News, Staten Islander Exclusive

NYC’s The People’s Money: Civic Engagement Commmission Discusses Borough Assemblies Of New Yorkers Just Like You Who Help Decide Participatory Budget Projects

Editor’s note: We previously covered the initial sessions of “The People’s Money” participatory budgeting process for New York City when the NY Public Library talked about it.

The Civic Engagement Commission hosted a Media Roundtable on Thursday, January 22nd at 1PM to inform New Yorkers of the launch of Phase 2 of The People’s Money: Borough Assemblies. These assemblies are made up of randomly selected New Yorkers that are entrusted with creating our final ballots integrating what they hear from community-based organizations and city agencies, while considering their lived experiences.

The NYC Civic Engagement Commission (CEC) is excited to launch a new year of The People’s Money – NYC’s citywide participatory budgeting process! All New Yorkers age 11 and up, regardless of immigration status, can decide how to spend a part of the city’s expense budget on programs, services, and events in their borough and/or neighborhood to address community needs.

What is Participatory Budgeting?

Participatory budgeting (PB) is a democratic process in which community members decide how to spend part of a public budget. PB originated in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1989 as an anti-poverty intervention. Since then, it’s been implemented in over 10,000 municipalities across the world to help residents directly decide budgets for states, counties, cities, housing authorities, schools, and other institutions.

The History of PB in NYC and the CEC

PB was brought to NYC in 2011 by four City Council Members – Brad Lander, Melissa Mark-Viverito, Jumaane Williams, and Eric Ulrich. Since then, over 33 City Council districts have invited their residents to decide how to spend public funds in a process called PBNYC.

In November 2018, close to one million New Yorkers voted in a citywide referendum proposed by the 2018 Charter Revision Commission for a ballot initiative creating the CEC and mandating it to implement a citywide participatory budgeting program. This mandate can be found in Chapter 76 of the NYC Charter.

Phases of the The People’s Money

Phase 1: Idea Generation

● From October 15 through November 19 of 2025, the CEC and our 75+ community-based partners will be inviting New Yorkers to in-person workshops to learn about the city budget cycle, identify community needs, and brainstorm ideas for expense projects. Residents are able to propose ideas directly on our platform at participate.nyc.gov

Phase 2: Borough Assemblies

● From January to February, committees of randomly selected New Yorkers called Borough Assemblies evaluate ideas against equity criteria and develop projects to appear on borough ballots.