We can think of the budget like a bean! It has all the information and resources it needs to make a plant.

Budgets might be dense and boring (they definitely are), but they are also a crucial place we need to engage if we want a city that works better for all of us. The city budget contains all the things that contribute to how our city takes care of people and the kinds of services we have access to. It also applies to small things like speed bumps, trash pickup, and playgrounds.

Like a bean plant, a city is going to produce the kind of fruit that it had at the bean stage—if our budget makes investment on the Northwest side of town easy, but doesn’t have the same provisions for the Eastside, our city will be unevenly developed. If our budget says we need to prioritize funding the police, and not funding parks or sidewalks, we will have a city where criminalization is more important than public space.

Here you can see the proposed fiscal year 2026 General Fund budget for Oklahoma City. The General Fund is the largest part of the municipal budget, and also where there is the most flexibility on how funds are used. These can change dramatically based on the priorities of the city. Using the sliders below, you can increase or decrease allocations to each department in line with your own priorities. The bar graph on the left will adjust as you reallocate, and you can download the final result of your reimagined budget to share with your city councilperson. We deserve a budget that prioritizes our needs!