After presenting to council, participatory budgeting group meets today

Four supporters of participatory budgeting spoke at last week's Greensboro City Council meeting, and now the group will meet today to continue plans to create a participatory budgeting process that would allow citizens more direct control over how the city's budget is allocated.

The project, which is backed by the local Fund for Democratic Communities, is asking for one percent of the city's annual budget — approximately $4.5 million — to be set aside for the participatory process beginning next fiscal year 2012-13.

The council meeting was packed with supporters of the initiative — according to the fund, over 60 people stood in support of the project.

"Now that we've introduced [participatory budgeting] to Greensboro we need to ensure it is adopted by the City Council," the group's latest email said. "Let's put Greensboro at the forefront of this democratic movement that is picking up steam across the United States!"

For more information about how a participatory budgeting process would work, visit http://greensboropb.org. Today's meeting is at 5:30 p.m. at the fund's office at 620 S. Elm Street.