New case study on People's Budget Cleveland

The Democracy Beyond Elections national campaign recently published a case study on PB CLE's 2023 Issue 38 campaign. 

It highlights the basebuilding work PB CLE started in 2021, when Cleveland was set to receive $512 million in federal ARPA funds. PB CLE called on Council to enable residents to have real power to make real decisions about how the city spends a portion of that money. 

The case study authors interviewed supporters and opponents of Issue 38, the ballot initiative PB CLE led in 2023 once City Council denied that request. 

Cleveland Owns has been part of PB CLE since its founding in 2021. For us, economic democracy belongs in how our local government operates, just as it belongs in the ownership structures of our businesses, like co-ops. We appreciate the work of the Participatory Budgeting Project, Catalyst California, and Partners for Dignity and Rights for telling this story of our fight for economic democracy in Cleveland.

From the case study:

In 2023, People’s Budget Cleveland launched a historic ballot initiative to direct the City of Cleveland to put aside funds equivalent to 2% of the City of Cleveland’s General Fund each year towards participatory budgeting. While the vote was razor thin, the measure did not pass. This campaign built on previous advocacy efforts to ask the city government to allocate $30.8 million of American Rescue Plan Act (“ARPA”) funds towards participatory budgeting, a democratic process in which  community members directly decide how public funds are spent.

Download the case study here: