City Councilor Nichole Rogers, PBABQ to Launch the Second Round of Participatory Budgeting in Council District 6

ALBUQUERQUE – After completing a Participatory Budgeting (“PB”) pilot program in City Council District 6 last year, City Councilor Nichole Rogers and  Participatory Budgeting of Albuquerque (PBABQ) are launching the second round of PB in the District where community members who live, work, and/or study in Council District 6 are invited to propose capital project ideas to improve their neighborhoods.

Participatory Budgeting is a six-step process where the community decides how public money will be spent. Councilor Rogers is featured in this video, outlining the six phases of the PB process and to learn more about the outcomes of the PB pilot program. Community members are invited to keep up with all that is happening with the second round of PB and to complete the following form to be added to the PBABQ email list: Welcome to PBABQ!

Applications to serve on the Steering Committee for the second round of PB in District 6 were open throughout the month of March. There were close to 30 community members who applied to serve on the Steering Committee who will be helping lead the second round of the PB process.  PBABQ hosted their Steering Committee Orientation on April 14 at the Albuquerque Peace and Justice Center. 

Now that the Steering Committee is onboarded, PBABQ and Steering Committee members will start hosting Project Idea Workshops in collaboration with community organizations who serve District 6 community members.  If you live, work, and/or study in District 6 and are interested in participating in one of these Workshops or collaborating with a community organization in facilitating one of these Workshops, please email Jeff Hertz at [email protected] or complete the Project Idea Workshop Registration Form.

“After a successful pilot year, we’re proud to bring PB back to District 6 with even more opportunities for community involvement,” said City Councilor Nichole Rogers. “Community members helped shape real, tangible projects in our first round, and now we’re ready to go further by reaching more voices, generating more ideas, and continuing to make our budget reflect the priorities of the people it serves.”

In May 2025, over twelve-hundred District 6 community members voted for their top three projects among the nine projects that were included on the PB ballot (these are projects that emerged as top priorities from the 242 project ideas originally submitted). Since then, six out of the nine projects have been funded through a combination of City Council Set-Aside funds, State Capital Outlay funds, and other funding sources.

This year, Councilor Rogers will be designating $1.7 million of her District 6 City Council Set-Asides in next year’s General Obligation Bond Program for capital projects within District 6. These funds can be used for projects like lighting, street improvements, beautification, or added infrastructure improvements.

If you are interested in learning more about projects that are eligible for funding and want to submit project ideas on your own time, you can submit project ideas at any time through the PBABQ Project Idea Submission Form. The deadline for submitting project ideas is May 31, 2026.

If you are unable to schedule a Project Idea Workshop but would still like to attend an in-person event to collaborate with other community members in submitting project ideas, the PBABQ District 6 Steering Committee will also be hosting three District-Wide Assemblies where community members can either introduce new ideas or build off of those that were already submitted during all of the Project Idea Workshops. Two of these Assemblies will be held in-person and one will be hosted via zoom (dates and locations still to be determined).

Sign up for the PBABQ email list today to stay up to speed on the PB process!

PBABQ’s mission is to promote more just and innovative governance by deepening civic engagement in democratic processes and honoring local knowledge as the focal point for allocating civic funds. PB works to develop new community leaders and transform city-community relationships through transparent practices while centering shared responsibility and respectful stewardship of our city’s resources.