Cleveland's own political kingmaker Mark Hanna allegedly said that only two things mattered in politics; the first was money, and he forgot what the second one was. 



Here in Cleveland, money matters - especially how money is spent by the government. Recently, the city and county have been in the news for spending money on stadiums, hotels, the building formerly known as the Medical Mart; we often forget that money is spent on things like sewer pipes, maintaining roads, buying salt, police, ambulances, maintaining bridges, and a host of other things. In fact, the city and county spent over a billion dollars on our communities in 2013. 

But the process of how our money is spent isn't well understood, even if it is critical to how our city operates. On Wednesday, January 22, at 6:30 p.m., we're going to have a discussion about how the budgeting process works at both the city and county level. Joining us will be Council President Kevin Kelley, who is also the chair of the Finance Committee, as well as County Councilman Dale Miller, who is the chair of the county's Finance and Budgeting Committee. Also joining us will be Angela Shuckahosee, head of a county-wide nonprofit that receives some funding from our local governments. This is your chance to learn and ask questions about the process of allocating money from the people in charge of the committees. 

We'll see you there!

http://theciviccommons.com/blog/balances-and-checks