The city's budget experts have toured council districts in recent years to provide presentations to groups seeking more information, but this year the Austin Budget Office intends to move away from lectures and instead host interactive workshops to provoke further public engagement. At a May 23 District 2 Town Hall Meeting at American Youthworks on East Ben White Boulevard, the city’s budget office rolled out a new presentation, highlighted by an interactive polling feature that asks attending residents to answer budget-related questions in real time. According to Ed Van Eenoo, Austin’s deputy chief financial officer, this—paired with a new in-depth budget priority survey circulating around the council districts and a revamped and simplified budget simulator tool—is part of a larger effort by the budget office to get the public more engaged. He said the goal is to give more weight and definition to the public’s voice in informing the final budget recommendation than just a simple public hearing in front of council. “It’s an added value to our budget process,” Van Eenoo said. “It serves to educate community not only about budget and how it affects their pocketbook, but also how they can get involved and get more information.” Tuesday’s pilot was filled with technical glitches and some residents trolling the presentation with mock answers on open-ended questions. For the most part, however, the exercise provided residents with insight into the budget—and revealed some priorities among District 2 residents. For example, Health and Human Services received overwhelming resident support—42 percent—as the most important service provided by the city. The same category also received the most votes for service increases regardless whether taxes have to rise. Gentrification and affordability were far and away the most popular answers to the open-ended question: “What is the single most important issue Austin needs to address?” That is, until “tacos” became one of the most popular answers by way of some class clowns. The unique budget presentation is not yet scheduled for each district. Van Eenoo said his office will only take the presentation to districts at the request of each council member. Elected officials from District 1 and District 8 have been the only other council districts to show interest so far. Van Eenoo said he hopes to educate as many council districts as possible before staff brings its budget recommendation to council later this summer. “It’s important to give everybody who wants their voice to be heard along those lines an opportunity,” Van Eenoo said. “Staff will also have a better idea of what issues are in the community so ideally we can craft a recommendation that takes all that into account.” Visit the city’s budget website for more information.