Voting on the 2024 citizens' budget begins on October 1

From Tuesday, 01.10.24 10 a.m., residents aged 16 and over can vote online on the valid proposals for six weeks. At the same time, voting will also start via ballot papers at six different locations in the city. Voting will run until 12.11.24 at 10 pm.

From June 1 to July 31, suggestions could be submitted by the urban community. A total of 86 proposals were received by the Central Coordination Office for Citizen Participation during this period. All proposals were checked by the administration to see whether they complied with the regulations. If a proposal is invalid, the administration provides a justification, which can be found on the mitmachen platform. The results were discussed in the Citizen Participation Advisory Board on 24.09.24 and 25 proposals can now be put to the vote.

"With 86 proposals, a new record has been reached. The opportunity to help shape the citizens' budget has been very well received by the people of Jena. Now it is up to them to vote for their favorites in Jena. The decision between the 25 proposals will be exciting." - says Christian Gerlitz, Mayor and Head of Department for Urban Development and the Environment.

Specifically, the total sum is €186,000, with €100,470 available in the overall budget. Residents now have the choice of which measures the money should go towards. The fact that only a good third of the proposals can be put to the vote this year is due to similar reasons as in previous years. The budget cap of €10,000 was the most common reason. For some proposals, the issue was not within the city's remit and there were also some proposals that were already in the planning or implementation stage due to city council resolutions or city administration projects.

The rules of the citizens' budget stipulate that only people who live in Jena and are at least 16 years old can vote. Registration is therefore required for online voting. Personal data must be entered on the ballot papers. This year, it is again possible to post the ballot papers not only in the city's deadline letterbox (Am Anger 15), but also at the voting locations in the Stadtwerke Jena customer center (Saalstraße 8a), Winzerla district office (Anna-Siemsen-Straße 49), Lobeda district office (Karl-Marx-Allee 28) and the Polaris (Camburger Straße 65) and Eastside (Marie-Juchacz-Straße 1a) youth centers.

All explanations and the ballot papers are available on the participation platform of the city of Jena: https://mitmachen.jena.de/buergerbudget(link is external)