Bill Text: HI HR101 | 2016 | Regular Session | Introduced

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Bill Title: Requesting a study on participatory budgeting.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 9-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2016-03-14 - Referred to FIN, referral sheet 28 [HR101 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2016-HR101-Introduced.html

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.R. NO.	101
TWENTY-EIGHTH LEGISLATURE, 2016
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE RESOLUTION

 

 

requesting that the legislative reference bureau conduct a study on the feasibility of allocating funding for capital improvement projects through a participatory budgeting process.

 

 

 

     WHEREAS, participatory budgeting is a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget; and

 

     WHEREAS, the participatory budgeting process was first developed in Brazil in 1989 and has since been implemented in jurisdictions across the globe, with notable examples in Canada, Germany, Indonesia, France, and the United States, including in New York City, which distributed over $32,000,000 in public funds through participatory budgeting processes last year; and

 

     WHEREAS, though each participatory budgeting process may be different, most follow a similar pattern where residents brainstorm public spending ideas and priorities, volunteer delegates develop proposals based on these ideas, residents vote on the proposals, and public agencies implement the top proposals; and

 

     WHEREAS, while the traditional political process may involve a complex mix of esoteric politics, exclusive language, byzantine procedures, and obfuscating rhetoric that impedes the average citizen's participation, a prime characteristic of participatory budgeting is the transformation of this process into a series of simple, straightforward, citizen-driven interactions; and

 

     WHEREAS, while current democratic processes provide most citizens with the opportunity for meaningful public participation only at elections, participatory budgeting can offer an alternative system in which citizens directly and regularly assume decision-making power and are empowered to act as their own advocates in negotiating among themselves and with elected officials for the distribution of scarce resources and implementation of public policy priorities; and

 

     WHEREAS, in jurisdictions where it has been implemented, participatory budgeting has been shown to increase citizens' participation in the democratic process, to spur reform in bureaucratic systems, and to rebalance the distribution of resources to low-income communities; and

 

     WHEREAS, when citizens have a means of clearly expressing their needs and priorities, government agencies and elected officials are able to better serve their constituents; and

 

WHEREAS, capital improvement project budget items reflect State expenditures for public infrastructure projects that directly benefit the communities in which they are located; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-eighth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2016, that the Legislative Reference Bureau is requested to conduct a study on the feasibility of allocating funding for capital improvement projects through a participatory budgeting process; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Legislative Reference Bureau shall submit the results of the study to the Legislature and to the Governor no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the 2017 Regular Session; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Acting Director of the Legislative Reference Bureau and the Governor.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title: 

Requesting a study on participatory budgeting.