The city of Madison is giving residents another opportunity to participate in developing the upcoming city budget with the launch of a new website this week.
Mayor Paul Soglin and members of the City Council announced they will use the website IdeaScale as a new way for residents to participate in the 2013 budget process, according to a city statement. The website allows residents to suggest ideas for inclusion in the city budget, the statement said.
In addition to posting comments, IdeaScale also asks that people vote once for the suggestion that interests them the most, according to Soglin’s spokesperson Sally Miley. The top suggestions will be used to guide discussion during the four public meetings hosted by the city about the budget, she said.
City officials decided to use the website because it allows the city to better obtain public opinion about city services they would like to see included in the budget, Miley said. Other city governments use the website, she said.
In previous years, the city asked residents to fill out surveys asking for similar information that took a lot of time for people to fill out, she said.
“I liked this [website] because people can do it pretty quickly,” Miley said. “We are getting a lot of really interesting stuff.”
Residents put their comments into one of four categories: recreation, transportation, health and business. Depending on the quality and quantity of ideas, Miley said city officials will take the top 10 ideas from each category and use them in the corresponding city meetings.
At each public meeting, the top ideas will be discussed and attendees will be asked to recommend one idea to city officials and city council members to consider in budget decisions, Miley said.
Miley said she hopes the website will help increase student participation in the process.
“Last year we had one meeting on campus and didn’t have a great turnout,” Miley said. “This might be something that is easy to do [for students] with the hope they want to participate.”
Tim Fruit, administrative analyst in the city’s Finance Department, said the website is a particularly important tool for city because it will face greater challenges when making its budget, he said.
“We have a budget that is going to be difficult,” Fruit said. “I think there are stressors on both the revenue and expenditure side.”
Residents have already expressed concern about providing basic services, Fruit said. The cost of providing basic services is increasing, and it will be difficult to balance because city revenue is not increasing as quickly, he said.
A version of the website has been up since April 26 and has already received more than 50 comments, Miley said.
The public meetings will be held on May 9, 15, 23 and 29, Miley said. The city plans to keep the website up at least until the last public meeting, if not later, she said.
IdeaScale is good for the city because it has many uses, Miley said. If the first campaign the city launches with the website is successful, the city may use it to engage the public with other city issues, she said.
