Media Contact
Name: Amy Mehaffey
Title: Communications & Main Street Director
Phone: 936-559-2573
Email address: mehaffeya@ci.nacogdoches.tx.us
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you were in control of the budget for the entire City of Nacogdoches? With the launch of the new, interactive Nacogdoches People’s Budget Game, citizens are given the opportunity to allocate funds to different departments within the city while striving to maintain a balanced budget.
While playing, citizens will not only provide the City of Nacogdoches with valuable information about possible wants, needs, and priorities within our community, but also, begin a deeper understanding of the challenges associated with providing invaluable services to the community with available funds.
The Nacogdoches People’s Budget Game is a budget simulation which effectively lets residents of Nacogdoches be “mayor for a day.” After logging in, users are shown a list of city departments who receive general fund dollars in order to serve Nacogdoches citizens. Each department of the city has a brief description of their function and the minimum budget required to operate. Citizens are then able to decided which departments to give more or less funds to based on what they believe is most important.
“We must recognize our community is diverse and those currently active in the local government process are most often interested in special projects or certain areas of our community. This passion is a wonderful aspect of the civic engagement process-one that we encourage,” City of Nacogdoches Communications Director said. “Additionally, we must also balance the needs and the wants of the community and each special interest group throughout the budget’s development. Although this simulation will allow users to provide us input on special interest areas, the City Council will approve a final budget based on the overall needs of the community. Input is generated in multiples ways and this great new tool is one element of a complicated annual puzzle.”
Some department budgets also include quick polls as a part of their profile within the game. Quick polls are designed to get users thinking about real life implications of adding or removing funding dollars. Each of the quick polls help the City of Nacogdoches understand what is most important to our citizens.
After community members finish playing the game, the City of Nacogdoches Communications Department will compile the budgets of Nacogdoches citizens and analyzing the data to report to both the community and the City of Nacogdoches staff and officials.
The City of Nacogdoches is so excited to share this fun, insightful tool with the community! If you would like to play the Nacogdoches People’s Budget Game, visit nacogdoches.peoplesbudget.com.
