🔭 PLATFORM VIEW: Chloe Brown’s Budget

🔗 LINK: tinyurl.com/cbbudget2023

🔧 DOABLE? Yes.

💰 COSTED? Yes.

✨ OVERALL: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½ (4.5 out of five)

I kicked off this by-election brouhaha by demanding that candidates provide us budgets as part of their platforms. The new “strong mayor” powers specifically give the mayor near-total control of the budget process, so why wait until after election day to tell us what you’re going to do? Let’s stop pretending this isn’t something that can be accomplished with publicly-available info.

Chloe Brown is the first major candidate to deliver. And holy hell, did she ever. This is one of the most detailed policy programs I have ever seen in a municipal election. With ridiculous attention to specifics — there are footnotes, and they are COPIOUS — Brown’s proposal is basically a top-to-bottom renovation of City Hall’s departmental structure.

There’s a lot to like here. City Hall’s structure hasn’t really been looked at since amalgamation, and there’s a lot of legacy cruft and unnecessary separation. Creating clear and understandable “authorities” — with commissioners accountable for each — is good for a couple of reasons:

1. It makes it easier for residents to know who they’re supposed to go to for help.

2. It makes it way easier to understand the city’s priorities, which are ultimately reflected in budgeting. Under Brown’s proposed structure, the city’s top priority is mobility, followed by community, followed by health & safety. Cool.

Because this was touted as a budget, I would have liked to see the revenue side. How’s all this paid for? I hope that’s coming.

The attached spreadsheet sourcing all the numbers and showing the math is next level. Be still, my nerdy budget heart.

The bar has been set. Serious candidates should do better than platitudes and slogans. Show us some numbers.

PLATFORM VIEW is a new daily(ish) feature by City Hall Watcher on Substack Notes. Got a request for a candidate policy proposal I should review? Let me know.