1. Your City/Your Decision: Citizen-Based Budgeting in Menlo Park, CA
Malka Kopell, Community Focus
For the National Conference on Dialogue and Deliberation
August, 2006

2. Phase I Survey: Example

3. Phase II Survey: Example

4. % Reducing Net Costs, by Service Area (Random Sample)

5. Comparing Phase I and II
65% of survey respondents selected a combination approach
33% tax options
66% net cost reductions
Phase II
93% of workshop groups chose a combination approach
45% tax options
55% net cost reductions (including overhead and efficiency cost savings)
Let’s first compare the overall approach.
We see here that in both Phase I and II, a majority of survey respondents and workshop groups chose a combination approach.
We also see that Phase II workshop groups chose to use tax options to balance more of the budget. This difference is likely explained by the workshop participants responding to specific budget-balancing strategies offered in Phase II workshops. I’ll give an example of this in a moment.