Your City Taxes the Poor to Protect the Rich | Matt Harder and Clara Mattei

What if residents got to decide how public money is spent, instead of the politicians, consultants, developers? Matt Harder, founder of CivicTrust, has spent over a decade building participatory budgets in cities across the United States. In this conversation, economist Clara Mattei sits down with Matt in Tulsa to break down how participatory budgeting actually works, and why it may be one of the most powerful tools for rebuilding democratic participation from the ground up. Like the case when 1,200 people in Atlanta voted to paint a traffic island, and when beaver statues became a community's most beloved public project. How Denver residents chose mobile farmers markets and heat relief over top-down plans. And what FREE is building with TulsaDecides.org — a participatory process that could connect budgeting to progressive taxation. This is economics as it should be: decided by the people who live it. 🌱 Support FREE on Patreon for early access to every episode:   / freefreeforum   ABOUT THE GUEST: Matt Harder is the founder of CivicTrust, a consulting firm that partners with cities to design and implement participatory budgeting programs. He has led PB initiatives in New York City, Denver, Atlanta, and other cities, focusing on technology-driven approaches to civic engagement and democratic innovation. 00:00:00 Introduction 00:01:11 What Is Participatory Budgeting? 00:11:16 How a PB Actually Gets Started 00:15:17 Who Gets to Vote — and Who's Usually Left Out 00:16:35 Keeping Special Interests Off the Ballot 00:19:16 1,200 People Voted to Paint a Traffic Island 00:22:16 Knapsack Voting: Shopping for Your City 00:28:21 Needs vs. Profits: What People Actually Choose 00:30:34 Can Communities Control Who Builds the Projects? 00:34:39 When Participatory Budgeting Is Just a Show 00:42:02 How FREE Could Bring PB to Tulsa 00:42:29 Tulsa Decides: Running PB Without a Budget 00:49:27 Connecting PB to Progressive Taxation 00:55:00 Why Learning by Doing Beats the Classroom 🔔 Subscribe to FREE (Forum for Real Economic Emancipation) @FreeFreeForum⁩ ❤️ Watch, learn more, and join the FREE Forum: https://freefreeforum.org 🌱 Support FREE & Help Us Grow: https://www.freefreeforum.org/donate 🎧 Listen as a Podcast Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5m5xbrP... ▶ Connect with FREE Linktree: https://linktr.ee/FreeFreeForum Substack: https://freefreeforum.substack.com/ X: https://x.com/freefreeforum Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/freefreeforu... Instagram:   / freefreeforum   TikTok:   / freefreeforum   Facebook:   / freefreeforum   #participatorybudgeting #democracy #civicengagement #localgovernment #claramattei #economics #politicaleconomy #budgeting #democraticparticipation #civictrust