Peoples Budget Texas

I brought what is today the largest democratic participatory process in the South of the United States. Since then towns and cities around Texas have requested help in implementing a participatory budgeting process, in response I have began to design a platform so every town, school, district, county, and city may implement participatory budgeting. When complete it will be the largest democratic participatory exercise in the United States and the first nation/state participatory budgeting platform in the world. 

I have lived in 10 countries and backpacked +80 countries, I recognized the loss of faith in democracy in recent years as a threat to an inclusive future. To strengthen democracy we must deepen its participation and inclusive nature, participatory budgeting does this. 

1. We are responding to the loss of faith and confidence in the democratic process around the world.

2. Our response is expanding what is currently the largest participatory democratic exercise in the South.

3. We are building the largest participatory democratic exercise in the history of the United States. Participatory Budgeting is the most inclusive social and democratic exercise in the world, children as young as 12 to undocumented workers participate in a community building exercise. 

The loss of faith in institutions and the democratic process has led to a nihilist and distrustful view of most authority in the world, some of it is justified yet most is not. The exclusive approach of governance has exasperated the problem, in response we must do the opposite and bring in the rich experience, views, and spirit of the community in governance. Our model affects everyone in the community and once established is rarely withdrawn as a process, it gives people ownership over the direction of their community and greater pride.

Peoples Budget Texas is a nonprofit which hosts the digital platform providing every entity in Texas the ability to implement a participatory budgeting process and also providing training. Every school, town, district, county, and municipal government will be able to implement a participatory budgeting process.

Participatory budgeting is the most inclusive exercise in the world and brings together the full spectrum of demographics in a community towards inclusive democratic values. It impacts everyone starting at the young age of 12 years of age.

If the aim is to elevate humanity then you want to begin with including them in the destiny of their community. We have an approach that reaches communities as young as 12 years old to ingrain in them the values of working together and the democratic process. 

In response to autocratic tendencies around the world which placed the democratic process and values at risk.

Democracy is the true creed of an American, worthy of defense.

If there is someone better I will give way. I was a Federal Investigator and focus on asking the right questions. My research has found that after many trials and failures in creating a municipal and nationwide model, in recent years, the time is now ideal because of the many failures in recent years offer the lessons to succeed, and technology has now made accessible and affordable.

I founded Studio Bahia, a laboratory to provide mental health therapies over virtual reality to refugees. The rejection from the psychology industry was disciplined and severe. I then signed up to do a PhD in the Phenomenology of Immersions to bring together the interdisciplinary tools to learn and develop world class therapies. I have completed the course work and I am writing my dissertation. Studio Bahia is now providing the most accessible and low cost mental health intervention in the industry. www.studiobahia.org 

I have believed for many years that I am not a good leader, the reason was an experience in managing 45 employees of a business, I felt I failed and that I was not meant to be a leader. Since that experience I implemented a leading from behind philosophy of leadership to avoid being a leader, strangely leading from behind is a wonderful form of leadership when bringing together interdisciplinary teams in solving problems. I currently run a flat organization and will employ a similar model for Peoples Budget Texas, until it is required to adapt in better serving the public.

We make it easy for any organization to implement a participatory budgeting process. In the past they would have to create the whole process themselves. 

In the early history of the United States towns and communities came together to decide how to use their monies, they would meet at town halls, pubs, churches and raise their hands in choosing to either fund a school or fix a road. We have been doing participatory budgeting since the beginning of the American Revolution. We are just returning to our essence.

Peoples Budget Texas currently serves 180,000 people in District 9 of San Antonio, Texas. In one year it will serve from 180,000 to 500,000, in five years we hope to reach +20 million Texans.

We have a high demand for participatory exercises which bring people together, the online platform is perfect for this during the pandemic and will insure participation and community building, even while we physically distance. In five years the online platform and our method of training will be ready to duplicate and give to other states and countries.

There is a hunger to bring people together, even while partisanship seems deeply rooted, we have more in common then what makes us different. We will adjust to physical distancing yet our model is very adequate for these times. Our voting software from Stanford University is free and open source and allows for the safe voting of projects in schools and districts, it is perfectly useful during the times of the pandemic. Surprisingly every political group enjoys participatory budgeting for their own ideological reasons, it is very popular, and very helpful to politicians in their reelection. We do not see many barriers, our goals is to provide a world class platform to bring people together again. 

One barrier is patching together the various open source systems in creating a fluid and accessible platform, for that we are under the guidance of Stanford University and Berkley in finding the most efficient way to engage large numbers of people in the process. We are constantly reaching out and learning and recruiting people to our project.

The League of Women Voters has a large volunteer force in Texas and we have asked them to review the model and join the Board. We also would be learning from their outreach and training methodology to use in complementing the online platform. 

Peoples Budget Texas will be a flat organization where all staff earn $25 an hour, it will be governed by a Board and Ethics Advisory Board. Participatory Budgeting is done in over 3,000 cities and it is the most successful self governance and participatory exercise in the last 20 years. We are taking what is a municipal model and expanding to a state wide approach to provide ease of use and savings to local organizations and governments. By keeping the model under a 510c3 we are able to save from having each school and government develop their own platforms, as is done in New York City. Also we keep the cost low since we depend on donations.

Donations by participants.

Currently the project provided 180,000 people a participatory exercise for the cost of $500 annually. In Texas we believe in being self reliant and respectful of peoples tax money, we will continue in this process and keep cost down and reasonable.

We welcome funds, yet we are sure that once people participate they see how wonderful the process is, and they then make small donations.

$500 for operating and $600 for 501c3 IRS application.