Cleveland, Ohio, Issue 38, People's Budget Initiative (November 2023)

Cleveland Issue 38
Election date November 7, 2023
Topic City budget and Local elections and campaigns
Status Defeated
Type Initiative

Cleveland Issue 38 was on the ballot as an initiative in Cleveland on November 7, 2023. It was defeated.

A "yes" vote supported creating a participatory budgeting process, called the People's Budget, in Cleveland, allowing residents to propose and vote on city-wide and neighborhood-specific projects using money allocated to the People's Budget Fund.

A "no" vote opposed estabishing the People's Budget process in Cleveland.

Election results

Cleveland Issue 38
Result		Votes	Percentage
Yes		33,156	49.11%
No		34,357	50.89%

Results are officially certified.

Source

Measure design

Issue 38 would have established a People's Budget (also known as participatory budgeting) process allowing residents to make proposals and vote on how to spend a portion of public funds. The initiative would have created the People's Budget Fund to distribute funds. The city would have allocated funds to the People's Budget Fund annually, starting with $350,000 for administrative and implementation costs in the first year. In subsequent years, the allocated amount would have increased to a percentage of the city's general fund: 1% in the second year, 1.5% in the third year, and 2% in the fourth year onward. As of 2023, 2% of the city's general fund is about $14 million.

The initiative would have created the People's Budget Steering Committee to be composed of eleven members: ten Cleveland residents aged 16 or older and one city staff member hired to support the People's Budget process or a city staff member designated by the mayor. Within three months of the adoption of the charter amendment, the mayor would have been directed to create a public application process open to all Cleveland residents aged 16 and older. Within six months of the amendment's adoption, the mayor and city council would have each selected five committee members from the pool of applicants. Under the initiative, the mayor and city council would have been directed to "strive to appoint residents who represent the diversity of Cleveland regarding age, gender, race, geography, LGBTQ+ status, and socioeconomic status."

The People’s Budget process would have spanned over a twelve-month period. Residents aged 13 and over would have been able to propose ideas, develop proposals, and vote on which ones to implement. The People's Budget funds would have been used for capital expenses and time-bound programmatic expenses, with neither category receiving more than 60% of the total funding. The committee would have been responsible for distributing funds for city-wide projects and neighborhood-specific projects, with the allocation within neighborhoods based on poverty data and information about historical and present-day social inequities.

Text of measure

Ballot title

The ballot title for Issue 38 was as follows:

“

AMENDMENT TO CHARTER TO ENABLE PEOPLE’S BUDGET PROCESS, ALLOCATE FUNDS ON AN ANNUAL BASIS TO THE PEOPLE’S BUDGET FUND, AND PERMANENTLY ESTABLISH THE PEOPLE’S BUDGET STEERING COMMITTEE

”

Full Text

The full text of this measure is available here.

Support

People's Budget Cleveland (PB CLE) sponsored the initiative.

Supporters

Political Parties

• Ohio Working Families Party

Organizations

• BLM Cleveland
• Building Freedom Ohio
• Cleveland VOTES
• Concerned Citizens Organized Against Lead
• Kings & Queens of Art
• LGBT Center of Greater Cleveland
• NAACP Cleveland
• Northeast Ohio Black Health Coalition
• Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless
• Northeast Ohio Left PAC
• OPAWL – Building AAPI Feminist Leadership
• Our Revolution Ohio
• Showing Up for Racial Justice
• The Carl Stokes Brigade
• The Neighbor Up Network
• The Spot Youth Empowerment
• ThirdSpace Action Lab
• Young Latino Network Cleveland

Arguments

• People's Budget Cleveland: "It’s time to reinvigorate democracy in Cleveland. Low voter turnout tells us that many Clevelanders feel like our current civic infrastructure is not serving them. A People’s Budget - where residents have real power to make real decisions - is new civic infrastructure, a new invitation for residents to sustain and deepen our democracy. We all want the freedom to make decisions that affect and improve our lives. Ballot initiatives let us exercise that freedom. In Ohio, special interests want to take our voice away by making it harder to amend our state Constitution with Issue 1 in the August special election. PB CLE strongly opposes Issue 1. PB CLE wants to make it easier for our voices to be heard and considered with a truly democratic process on how the Cleveland budget is spent."

Opposition

Opponents

Officials

• Mayor Justin Bibb (Nonpartisan)
• City Council President Blaine Griffin (Nonpartisan)

Arguments

• Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb: "This is very different from the initiative I proposed. “I do not support this initiative because I truly do not believe it is in the best financial interest of Clevelanders, but it’s ultimately up to the residents of the City of Cleveland to decide."
• City Council President Blaine Griffin: "Democracy is not always pretty, but our current process of allocating funds and making decisions that uphold our democratic values. I don’t think the proposal as delivered to us respects the people’s votes for their leaders. I’m disappointed by the decision to use General Funds for this project. Those funds will be diverted from safety and service and could throw our budget into disarray."

Background

Participatory budgeting in the U.S.

The first U.S. jurisdiction to implement participatory budgeting was Rogers Park, a neighborhood in Chicago. The ward's alderman, Joe Moore, created a process for resident involvement in spending funds normally allocated at the sole discretion of the ward's alderman. In 2010, 1,652 residents voted on how to allocate $1.3 million. Josh Lerner, co-director of The Participatory Budgeting Project, wrote, "On April 10th, all ward residents age 16 and over, regardless of voter registration or citizenship status, were invited to vote on the proposals at a local high school. In the week beforehand, 428 residents voted early at the Alderman’s office—more early voters per day than during the 2008 presidential election. On the final voting day, a stream of people filled the school cafeteria, reading over proposals, consulting with community representatives, and voting for up to eight projects on paper ballots. In the end, 1,652 residents turned out, not to elect someone to decide for them, but to make their own decisions about the ward. The turnout vastly exceeded expectations, considering the brand-new process, lack of media coverage, and absence of any other elections or ballot measures to inspire turnout. The $1.3 million was enough to fund the 14 most popular projects. The proposal to fix sidewalks received the most votes, and other funded projects included bike lanes, community gardens, murals, traffic signals, and street lighting."

Other U.S. cities that have adopted a process for participatory budgeting include New York City, New York; Vallejo, California; Greensboro, North Carolina; Boston, Massachusetts; Hartford, Connecticut; and Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Path to the ballot

People's Budget Cleveland (PB CLE) sponsored the initiative. The group submitted 10,582 signatures on July 10, 2023. To qualify for the ballot, 5,906 valid signatures (10% of the total votes cast in the previous municipal election) were required. In January 2023, the Cleveland City Council rejected PB CLE's proposal to use $5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to create a participatory budget pilot program. PB CLE began collecting signatures for the initiative in May 2023.

How to cast a vote

See also: Voting in Ohio

See below to learn more about current voter registration rules, identification requirements, and poll times in Ohio.

How to vote in Ohio

Poll times

In Ohio, all polling places are open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time. Voters who are in line at 7:30 p.m. are permitted to vote.

Registration

Check your voter registration status here.

To register to vote in Ohio, an applicant must be a United States citizen, a resident of Ohio for at least 30 days before the election, and at least 18 years old by the day of the election. Individuals who are incarcerated for a felony conviction, have been declared by a court to be incompetent for voting purposes, or have been permanently disenfranchised may not register to vote.

Applicants may register to vote online, in person, or by mail. The Ohio Voter Registration and Information Update Form is available online and can be requested by mail. In-person voter registration is available at various locations including the secretary of state and board of elections offices, Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles offices, public libraries and high schools, and other state agencies. A full list of locations is available here.

The deadline to register to vote is 30 days before the next election. An Ohio driver’s license number, state ID card number, or the last four digits of a SSN is required in order to register to vote or update a voter registration.

Automatic registration

Ohio does not practice automatic voter registration.

Online registration

See also: Online voter registration

Ohio has implemented an online voter registration system. Residents can register to vote by visiting this website.

Same-day registration

Ohio does not allow same-day voter registration.

Residency requirements

Prospective voters must be residents of Ohio for at least 30 days before the election.

Verification of citizenship

See also: Laws permitting noncitizens to vote in the United States

Ohio does not require proof of citizenship for voter registration. An individual must attest that they are a U.S. citizen when registering to vote. According to the state's voter registration application, "whoever commits election falsification is guilty of a felony of the fifth degree."

All 49 states with voter registration systems require applicants to declare that they are U.S. citizens in order to register to vote in state and federal elections, under penalty of perjury or other punishment. Seven states — Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire, and Wyoming — have laws requiring verification of citizenship at the time of voter registration, whether in effect or not. In three states — California, Maryland, and Vermont — at least one local jurisdiction allows noncitizens to vote in some local elections. Noncitizens registering to vote in those elections must complete a voter registration application provided by the local jurisdiction and are not eligible to register as state or federal voters.

Verifying your registration

The Ohio Secretary of State’s Office allows residents to check their voter registration status online by visiting this website.

Voter ID requirements

Ohio requires voters to present photo identification while voting.

The following list of accepted ID was current as of April 2023. Click here for the Ohio Secretary of State page on accepted ID to ensure you have the most current information.

“

Ohio driver's license; State of Ohio ID card; Interim ID form issued by the Ohio BMV; A US passport; A US passport card; US military ID card; Ohio National Guard ID card; or US Department of Veterans Affairs ID card All photo IDs must have the following: An expiration date that has not passed; A photograph of the voter; The voter’s name, which must substantially conform to the voter’s name as it appears in the Poll List or in the Poll Book

”

See also

Local measures

• Local measures in 2023
• City budget on the ballot

Ohio

• Ohio 2023 local measures
• Local ballot measures, Ohio
• Cleveland, Ohio

News and analysis

• State and local preemption conflicts
• Measures advancing national agendas