AustinTalks (http://austintalks.org/tag/budget/)
West Side residents have until Sept. 19 to submit their ideas on how the “menu money” should be spent. Community volunteers and Ald. Chris Taliaferro’s office will whittle down the suggestions for residents to vote on in coming months.
All but four Chicago Public Schools in Austin could see an increase in their budgets for the 20-21 school year. The Chicago Board of Education still needs to approved the school district’s $2.8 billion budget; that’s expected to happen sometime this summer.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. government is still conducting the nation’s once-a-decade count of all residents. Complete your form today or risk having your community lose out on future federal funding of a variety of programs.
One of the six public sessions will be held in Austin; that meeting will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 30 at Michele Clark High School, 5101 W. Harrison St. Residents are encouraged to register ahead of time.
29th Ward residents approved six out of seven projects that will be completed over the next several months. The projects include street resurfacing, community park improvements and a pedestrian crosswalk, with a safety island.
Voting will be available to any resident of the 29th Ward who is 14 or older. Ballots will be available online on Ald. Chris Taliaferro’s website and in person at his office, 6272 W. North Ave.; at the Austin Chicago Public Library, 5615 W. Race Ave.; and at the North Austin Chicago Public Library, 5724 W. North Ave. Voting ends Nov. 20.
CPS officials released school-by-school budgets in April, three months earlier than last year.
About 390 residents cast votes last month to decide how to spend Ald. Chris Taliaferro’s $1 million menu money. Sixty-five percent will go to street and alley resurfacing, while $312,500 will be spent on four community projects.
Voting runs through Nov. 20th on five neighborhood projects on the list to be funded out of Ald. Chris Taliaferro’s $1.3 million “menu money” budget. This is the second year those living in the ward have been able to take part in “participatory budgeting.”
The focus should be on showing West Side residents that students can receive an equitable and well-resourced education at Austin’s existing high schools, writes resident Dwayne Truss.