The People Of Louisville Deserve A Budget That Serves The Many.

This April, just like last April, the mayor’s office will hand down to our metro council a budget already drafted for them to debate and amend. Before the budget is passed, there will be one and only one community budget hearing, with a limited number of speakers. This is not democracy but a farce of charity, forcing us to beg for indulgence.

This process is undemocratic, and the people of Louisville deserve better.

What would a people’s budget look like? Would the people choose to continue pumping their dollars into police spending? When our public institutions are under attack on every level - here in Louisville, in Kentucky, and in the United States - we must fight to lift each other up if we want to build a better world.

We cannot address the needs of the working class in Louisville without carving back what is ours from grotesque overspending on the carceral state. As socialists, we know that material conditions, not individual failures of character, fuel crime, addiction, and homelessness. We agree that the collective good is better served by investing in our communities. Policing will never solve crime, but stealing from the mouths of our neighbors to fund it can certainly cause more.

What the People’s Budget aims to accomplish in Louisville is forcing the metro council to acknowledge and debate our amendment to the budget. The campaign will host three public town halls to draft the amendment by a democratic vote the city has never offered us.

An amendment to the metro budget cannot solve all the ills of inequality in our city, but we can intercede in the cycle of over-policing our communities. The same measures that actually reduce crime, like youth services, job training, housing and eviction prevention, mental health and substance abuse treatment, make our communities healthier and more prosperous with every dollar we can take back for the people.