Chicago’s Budget Season Starts With Public Input Sessions. Is Anybody Listening?

It’s budget season in Chicago — CTBA Executive Director Ralph Martire spoke with WBEZ reporter Mariah Woelfel about how residents can become involved in the budget process. “The public doesn’t have a lot of input, I think, in the city of Chicago budget, because it’s a very complex thing that I don’t think most people understand,” said Ralph Martire, the director of the bipartisan Center for Tax and Budget Accountability. However, residents have the opportunity to take time out of their daily lives to attend input sessions and share how they want to see taxpayer dollars spent. Pubic input sessions are ongoing. Attendees spend much of their time talking amongst themselves, filling out worksheets on whether they agree with the city’s current budget priorities and what policies they want to see at the forefront, as opposed to lining up behind a microphone to express these ideas verbally to city officials.