Citizens' budget 2021

The citizens' budget is a special form of participation for residents of the city of Jena. It gives them the opportunity to submit proposals for measures to improve the city. They then have the opportunity to vote on which of the proposals submitted should be implemented as part of the budget.

Proposals can only be submitted for measures that

• are in the area of voluntary tasks of the city of Jena,
• are not already included in the budget or business plan of a municipal enterprise and
• cannot be implemented through other financing options.

This year, the total amount of the citizens' budget is €100,000.

Anyone who would like to help shape Jena is entitled to submit proposals for the use of the citizens' budget. To ensure that the proposal is valid and can be voted on, the name and a contact option for any queries must be included with the submission.

Proposals will be put to the vote if they

• are received within the submission deadline (by 31.08.2021)
• the responsibility for implementation lies with the City of Jena (core administration and in-house operations)
• can be implemented within the next two years,
• do not exceed the amount of €10,000 per individual measure
• are not a measure or project that is intended to be permanent,
• the follow-up costs for maintenance, upkeep and management over the next 5 years are included in the budget costs of max. € 10,000,
• serve the general public and
• relate to the voluntary tasks of the City of Jena, such as work with children and young people, senior citizens, culture, sport, etc.

Proposals can also be submitted for the benefit of associations, sponsors, organizations and institutions of natural persons, provided they are residents of the city of Jena. However, only proposals that are either located in public spaces or in publicly accessible areas or are accessible to the general public free of charge can be implemented.

Proposals will not be put to the vote if they have already been budgeted for in the city administration's budget or the business plans of the municipal enterprises.

The citizens' budget and the measures it supports are part of democratic engagement and, in accordance with the Jena city program, may not discriminate against anyone with regard to ethnic origin, gender, religion or ideology, disability, age or sexual identity.

If you are already here, it is best to use the online form.

You can also submit your proposal by e-mail to buergerhaushalt@jena.de or in writing to

Urban Development and Environment Department
Central Coordination Office for Citizen Participation
Am Anger 26
07743 Jena

Ideally, we would also ask you to provide an e-mail address or telephone number so that we can contact you more easily.

The proposals received will be checked for validity by the City of Jena. This will usually take five working days. All proposals will be published on the portal on an ongoing basis. The City of Jena will provide reasons for proposals that are not valid.

All residents of Jena who are at least 16 years old can decide directly which proposals are implemented with the citizens' budget. Each person entitled to vote can cast a maximum of five votes. The five votescan be cumulated for one proposal or distributed among different proposals. The result of the vote is binding.

Voting can take place from 01.10.2021 to 10.11.2021 as follows

• Online via the voting portal
• via ballot papers, which can be handed in at various locations.

The ballot paper should be filled out completely and placed in an envelope. Please label it "Central Coordination Office for Citizen Participation, Citizens' Budget Vote".
The ballot papers can be handed in either in the deadline letterbox of the City of Jena (Am Anger 15), at the district mayors of your district or at the district office in Winzerla.
The ballot paper as well as an address overview of the drop-off locations is available for you to download.

The proposals are implemented in the order of the number of votes they receive. If proposals can no longer be considered due to the financial volume, it must be checked whether the proposals can be realized with a lower budget if the shortfall is no more than 10% .If this is not possible, the proposals thatstill fit into the remaining budget in terms of financial volume move upuntil the available budget has been used up completely.

• Here is an example: The remaining budget is € 7,800.
  • The next best proposal: Amount €9,500 -10% = €8,550; as this amount is higher than €7,800, it cannot be considered.
  • The next ranked proposal: Amount € 8,000 -10 % = € 7,200; This amount is below the remaining budget of € 7,800, therefore it must be checked again whether it can be realized with € 200 less.

If there is still a residual amount, this must be transferred tothe next possible citizens' budget.