How One Council Member Plans To Bring the City Budget To The People

This Austin city council member plans to hold open hearings on the budget with his constituents.

By Joy DiazOctober 7, 2015 9:00 am

When you think city government budgeting, you probably think of a long trail of politicking and bureaucracy. But what if you had the opportunity to decide what should go in the city budget? No political hoopla, no accountants – just regular folks deciding what should go in and what shouldn’t.

Greg Casar, the Austin City Council member for District 4, is doing exactly that: going directly to the constituents for his budgeting decisions. How’s that for transparency?

What you’ll hear in this segment:

-How Casar came up with the idea

-What kinds of budgeting requests he hears most often

-Why Casar is spending time in a part of the community that traditionally has had low voter turnout and few campaign contributions