Ballot Initiatives

The election is coming up and we need to flip the ballot!

“People hear me saying all the time: Flip the ballot. Flip it, or you’ll miss it,” said Jennifer Jones Austin, CEO and executive director of the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies and chair of the 11-member Racial Justice Commission that crafted the questions. “Because we have an opportunity – a historic opportunity – to shape the future of our city.”

The three ballot questions – on the back side of the Nov. 8 ballot – would require the city to abide by new sweeping equity goals, create an agency and commission overseeing a new racial equity goal-setting process, and annually measure a new “true cost of living” metric to inform policy decisions.

For the first time in the United States, racial justice is on the ballot:

See: https://vote.nyc/page/general-election-november-8-2022

Participatory Budgeting – And We Want Your Opinion

NYC’s first-ever expense-based, citywide participatory budgeting process is called The People’s Money – and you are invited!

https://www.participate.nyc.gov/processes/Citywidepb

All New Yorkers, regardless of citizenship, status, will have a say in how to spend $5 million of mayoral expense funding to address local community needs. All residents are invited to participate in the first phase of the process, idea generation, and all residents aged 11 and older will be eligible to vote. The People’s Money builds on the foundation laid by the Civic Engagement Commission’s 2021 local process, which engaged residents of the 33 neighborhoods hardest hit by COVID-19 in a $1.3 million participatory budgeting process.

The People’s Money, with funding from the Mayor’s office, will go exclusively to expense projects, programs and services that directly help residents in their day to day lives.

Make a proposal here:

https://www.participate.nyc.gov/processes/Citywidepb/f/304/