Impact of the economic crisis on public finances forced governments to review their budgets. Local authorities are facing the same challenges and must be creative to reduce costs in order not to raise taxes. Why not involve citizens? In Iowa, a small U.S. state of three million people, politicians have launched a consultation via Internet to gather ideas.
Democrats have created Open Budget Iowa to bring more transparency to the budget process and give the people of Iowa a direct voice in crafting a balanced, responsible state budget. We need your ideas and suggestions to find efficiencies and new cost savings in the budget." because "the troubled national economy and the devastating storms that hit Iowa last summer have caused a state budget shortfall that will require significant cutbacks and difficult choices." It is the same aim in the republican side, with the website "Budget Saving Ideas".
Ideas collected will be used to develop the state budget next year which begins on 1 July. We will see if some ideas have been accepted. Hundreds of suggestions were made, as "legalize marijuana but tax it two times the rate of cigarettes", "freeze the salaries of school administrators for one year", "raise the gas tax", "merge some of Iowa’s 99 counties and consolidate schools", "sell the gold from the Capitol dome", "use more videoconferencing, rather than sending state employees to meetings that require driving and overnight stays", or "a 10 percent pay cut for every state employee making a salary of more than $100,000".
The exercise is considered as positive and useful by local officials in Iowa. An initiative of participatory budgeting that you can find, among others, in a dedicated group on Facebook.
