Even though, as the Governor of the State of Tennessee, my hands may be tied, I would indeed encourage and support municipalities to embrace participatory budgeting. I will work closely with mayors working with participatory budgeting (PB) as a key tool to involve residents in deciding how to allocate public funds. It is a structured democratic process that allows community members to directly identify, discuss, and vote on projects to improve their neighborhoods and not be told what is going into their communities. Participatory budgeting is especially suited for the city level, because municipal infrastructure and programs have direct and highly visible impacts on the lives of residents.

While a Governor in Tennessee could theoretically initiate participatory budgeting (PB) for specific discretionary funds or discretionary grants, the state’s strict legal framework makes it unlikely. The Tennessee Constitution mandates that the legislature must appropriate all public funds, limiting a governor's ability to cede budgeting power to citizens.

Tennessee state laws dictate that the General Assembly approves all spending, requiring the governor to present a budget, but not to share the development of it with the public. The only likely route for a state-wide approach would be implementing PB on discretionary federal grants, which the governor can manage.

Participatory budgeting is usually a municipal tool rather than a state-wide tool. Localities, such as Metro Nashville, have used participatory budgeting to allow residents to direct funds for community projects. Each community has different needs, but Nashville has a great Participatory Budget agenda that could be a guideline for other municipalities, especially rural counties. To name a few projects: the Bordeaux Library Land Acquisition, Landscape improvements at Hartman Park and Bordeaux Gardens Park, and 1490 Snell Boulevard.

Participatory budgeting (PB) is a type of citizen sourcing in which ordinary people decide how to allocate part of a municipal or public budget through a process of democratic deliberation and decision-making. These processes typically begin with a series of popular neighborhood assemblies to initiate and discuss proposals and end with voting on the final decisions. Atwater's Tennessee support version of the PB will be Participatory Undisclosed Budgeting Involving Citizens (PUBLIC). Atwater will use this PLATFORM to bring every Tennessean back to the table of economic prosperity.

Participatory Undisclosed Budgeting Involving Citizens (PUBLIC) will be a citizen engagement process through which community members decide how to allocate a portion of a public budget. With the collaboration with mayors, Citizens will make direct decisions about how government money is spent in their community by identifying and prioritizing public spending projects. Communities will choose to use the PUBLIC process to deepen citizen engagement, including for the use of eligible Department of Housing and Urban Development Housing and Community Development funds. This creative process will curtail and slow down the selling off of their communities to out-of-town investors and developers.

PUBLIC will include a collaborative commitment to promote community-led participatory budgeting as a tool for enabling citizens to play a role in identifying, discussing, and prioritizing certain local public spending projects, and for giving citizens a voice in how taxpayer dollars are spent in their communities. When a large manufacturing company is given tax incentives or PILOT (payment-in-lieu-of-taxes), every neighborhood should be afforded the opportunity to secure a Community Benefit Agreement. Low-paying jobs will not be tolerated under my administration because they only serve as an economic oppression mechanism.

PUBLIC, the Atwater's Tennessee support version of Participatory budgeting, will allow citizens or residents of a locality to identify, discuss, and prioritize public spending projects, and give them the power to make real decisions about how money is spent. Participatory budgeting processes are typically designed to involve those left out of traditional methods of public engagement, such as low-income residents, non-citizens, and youth.

The way participatory budgeting can be utilized by cities is through eligible Department of Housing and Urban Development Housing and Community Development funds, which can be used to promote affordable housing and provide services to the most vulnerable citizens, which would be a great opportunity for rural Tennessee.

ATWATER'S GOAL AND STRATEGIES

As the future Governor of Tennessee, it is my belief that it is time for all citizens to be at the table of prosperity and inclusion with a lens of equity, focusing on budgeting through “Community Building Inclusion.” It is time for a resurrection…

(1) Tennessee Share Participatory Budgeting (TSPB) would empower citizens to decide together how to spend public money. As the next Governor, I would create and support a progressive participatory budgeting process that deepens democracy, builds a stronger Tennessee, and makes public budgets more equitable and effective for all Tennesseans.

(2) Real inclusion democracy will change the way we do business in Tennessee by learning from impacted people who have suffered from economic disparities, disinvestments, gentrification, displacement, and living in the shadows of hidden systemic racism with the push of a pin. At this point, we must dive into the underlying problems in this state and not just superficial quick fixes that benefit the wealthy and leave behind poor people who have been struggling for decades. It is time for a resurrection…

(3) As the next Governor, I will employ a multi-cultural, people-centered, community-based economic system of change for the betterment of all citizens. All Tennesseans should be able to share in what happens around them. Our democracy is in crisis in this state because of the lack of shared power, which has led to high crime, poverty, economic disparities, violation of human rights, and a lack of trust and respect for our political leaders. It is time for a resurrection…

(4) Tennessee Share Participatory Budgeting can transform the relationship between the Tennessee government and the communities that we should be serving. This inclusionary agenda would act as a roadmap in reimagining what true participatory democracy could look like in the State of Tennessee. It is time for a resurrection…

(5) Wasteful spending is out of control on material wealth, new development, and not the people. It is time for a resurrection…

(6) The balance of equity must focus on returning the gearshifts of Tennessee government budgeting to the people, therefore empowering people to decide collectively how public money is spent. We have a democracy that works - when community and government are on the same side of the table, making decisions that benefit all citizens, no matter what zip code you live in or what pedigree you may hail from. It is time for a resurrection…

(7) As the State of Tennessee experiences a rise in violent crimes and the brutal killing of Tyree Nichols in Memphis, Tennessee, we have witnessed how both crises have exacerbated existing inequities. As a future Governor, we must evaluate our current political and democratic processes to reimagine what a post-pandemic Tennessee could look like. As the next Governor, I am up for the challenge!

(8) Through a collective radical reimagining of Tennessee systems, by placing real power in the hands of the people who are most impacted through processes like participatory budgeting, using a holistic approach to addressing agitated problems exclusive to the Volunteer State. We must truly use the “grit and grin” boots-on-the-ground method to overcome this handicap socially, culturally, and economically. I am ready to be a new kind of Governor, the “People’s Governor.” It is time for a resurrection…

(9) Implementing government-community control over public budgets has never been more urgent, as it will have a more lasting impact for decades to come.

(10) This will be a clear pathway for all communities in the State of Tennessee to have real power and democracy over budgets, policies, and decisions that impact their lives. Not merely at the superficial table, but in the back-door decision-making shenanigans, thus being foot soldiers of justice for all of our citizens. It is time for a resurrection…