Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake announced the launch of a new interactive website Wednesday to help Baltimore residents learn more about the city's budgeting process and try their hand at balancing the books.
The website, Budget Live!, lets users explore the city's 2015 fiscal year spending plan down to the dollar being spent on park maintenance, outdoor swimming pools and youth violence prevention. An interactive game allows users to make decisions about how to eliminate a deficit for the next fiscal year while funding new city priorities, such as body cameras.
"Families across Baltimore have to balance their budgets each and every day," Rawlings-Blake said. "They struggle to make ends meet with what seems like less and less money. They can't afford to go over budget, and neither should the government pretend we can move forward under a different set of rules.
"It's important that people understand that we are doing the same exercise, just over a different kitchen table."
The goal of the website is collect input from residents and make the budgeting process more transparent, she said.
Rawlings-Blake said the site allows residents to leave comments about what they think should be funded and what should be cut. Residents also can use the site to ask the budget staff questions.
Andrew Kleine, the city's budget director, is projecting a $15 million shortfall in the budget year that ends June 20 and a $30 million shortfall in the coming year's spending plan. The deficit in the budget year that ends June 30 is due to a combination of factors, including high police overtime costs and lower than expected revenue from the Baltimore Horseshoe Casino.
The online budgeting simulator will be available until Jan. 30. Kleine said the budget staff will use the feedback as it prepares the next budget.
In addition to the website, the public can learn more about Baltimore's budget process by following Twitter.com/baltimorebudget. And for those not online, Kleine noted that the city will begin hosting budget workshops early next year.
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