Budgeting for Justice: Participatory Budgeting as a Means of Advancing Racial Equity in California

California’s legacy of white supremacy continues to devastate communities of color. Californians of color are less likely to have access to early childhood education programs, have health insurance, own a home, vote, and feel safe in their neighborhood. They are more likely to live below the poverty line, be incarcerated, live in close proximity to environmental hazards, and give birth to children with low birthweights.

These disadvantages are not coincidences. Rather, they result from a long history of racist policies and practices and largescale structural factors that disproportionately harm people of color.

Participatory budgeting (PB) is a potentially powerful tool for combating factors that drive racial inequities and advancing racial justice.

Budgeting for Justice: Participatory Budgeting as a Means of Advancing Racial Equity in California, provides a framework for understanding PB through a racial equity lens, highlights opportunities to organize and advocate for PB, and offers recommendations on how advocates can use PB to combat:

• Racial bias in budget processes
• Exclusionary patterns of economic development
• Imbalances in political power
• The negative effects of need- and color-blind policies

PB allows residents to directly participate in budget-decision making. It can serve as a means of empowerment by improving both equity in budget decision-making and resource allocation for marginalized communities.