The Strong Towns Podcast From Boring to Brilliant: Making Municipal Finance Fun With Michel Durand-Wood
Aug 26, 2024
Michel Durand-Wood, a local budget aficionado and longtime Strong Towns contributor, joins to demystify municipal finance. They discuss the need for everyday people to understand complex financial topics, emphasizing better communication and community engagement. The conversation shifts to accountability in municipal finance, revealing challenges in project evaluations and the emotional journey behind fiscal decisions. They also explore the long-term costs of infrastructure financing and tease upcoming projects aimed at making municipal finance both informative and entertaining.
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Vote That Sparked A Blog
- Michel Durand-Wood started Dear Winnipeg after a failed referendum on opening Portage and Main to pedestrians.
- He wrote to educate neighbors who had never considered municipal finance or infrastructure before.
Priorities Reveal Financial Limits
- 'Priorities' only matters if you lack money; unlimited funds remove trade-offs.
- Understanding municipal finance explains why some projects persist while basic services decline.
Learn The Basics Yourself
- Learn the basics; you don't need a formal finance degree to grasp municipal fiscal health.
- Regular people can and should understand high-level finance to influence decisions.