You can help Decide how Ward 1 money will be spent!

Councillor McHattie has established a Ward 1 Participatory Budgeting Advisory Committee (PBAC) to advise him on how Area Rating Dollars should be spent in Ward 1.

Area rating is the method used to assign specific program costs to different areas within the City for the purposes of taxation. In April of 2011, Council approved the transition to an “urban/rural” model of taxation for the area rated services.

As a result of these changes, an Area Rating Special Capital Re-Investment Reserve has been set up for Wards 1 to 8 (the former City of Hamilton).  The purpose of this reserve is to aid in addressing the required infrastructure investments within the former City of Hamilton. Ward Councillors are being asked to identify infrastructure priorities within their wards.

Councillor McHattie is involving the community to help identify these priorities through a process known as “Participatory Budgeting”.  First developed in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Participatory Budgeting directly involves the community in making decisions on the spending priorities for a defined public budget.

The Ward 1 Participatory Budgeting Advisory Committee (PBAC) is made up of twenty (20) members. The committee will be working on soliciting ideas from the community and will help identify the priorities of Ward 1 residents.

To read more about the process of participatory budgetting, check out the story on CATCH, or see Councillor McHattie’s website.

John Romano is one of the KNA executive members sitting on Brian McHattie’s new committee helping to decide how Ward 1 will spend the extra money it will be receiving. This is all explained at the website below. Please be in touch with John if you have ideas or questions for him, at john.romano@cogeco.ca