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Mayor unveils digital priorities‑based budgeting survey; councilors get 24 hours for feedback
Summary
Mayor Payne and staff demonstrated a digital priorities‑based budgeting tool that will collect councilor rankings and comments over 24 hours to guide the administration’s proposed 2026 budget.
Mayor Payne and city staff demonstrated a digital priorities‑based budgeting tool to councilors at the Committee of the Whole on Aug. 5 and said the administration would publish the survey the next morning and keep it live for 24 hours for councilor input.
The mayor described the exercise as a guidance tool for the administration’s 2026 budget proposal, not a final budget. Councilors will be asked to allocate a limited number of ranked votes across general fund and capital budget proposals; the mayor said he will give weight in his analysis to items previously funded and to recurring services but will publish raw ranking data for public transparency.
The tool begins with three big‑picture choices — reduce levy, increase operations using terminal tax, or increase capital spending using terminal tax — then asks councilors to select and rank up to 10 items in the general fund and 10 capital projects. The mayor said the first ranked items will carry more weight than lower‑ranked ones and encouraged councilors to use votes deliberately.
The mayor said comments will be published in the budget book and that the digital exercise is intended to speed input and help the administration craft a proposed budget the council can adopt. Staff asked councilors to submit corrections or additions to the survey by close of business the following day.
The mayor emphasized the process creates scarcity — the council cannot fund every request — and encouraged councilors to prioritize recurring services such as streets and parks if they wish to see those programs sustained.
