Commentary: Don’t wait to the end to have say in public budgets

Picture this: It’s 8 p.m. on a Wednesday. Ten residents have already spoken, and 20 more line up waiting their turn to talk. One by one they step up to the podium — some to talk about a lack of transparency, others with questions about funding decisions, all of them wanting to be heard, pleading for collaboration. There are millions of dollars, mostly their tax money, being allocated and distributed, and this is only their second time being heard. Each year, cities determine how tax