A civic project from Sage Lewis and Jax
What would you do with Akron’s budget?
You Budget Akron makes the city’s published numbers easier to explore, question and discuss.
The idea started with Sage’s question: could residents take Akron’s budget documents and actually interact with them? Follow the money, try different priorities, and bring specific questions to City Council?
That’s what this first version is for. It’s free to explore, and you don’t need an account.
Start wherever you’re curious.
- Explore the budget. See spending by fund and department, with historical actuals alongside the 2026 adopted plan.
- Read Budget explained. Learn what selected amounts pay for, what the cited pages leave unanswered, and questions you could take to council.
- Try your priorities. Adjust General Fund department spending and see the dollar trade-offs. Share a link to your hypothetical plan.
Every baseline is tied to the city’s budget book. The explanations link directly to the relevant PDF pages so you can check the source yourself.
A starting point for better questions.
This is an independent project, not a City of Akron website. It uses the original 2026 adopted budget, not a live checkbook. Changing a number does not establish that a proposal is legally or operationally feasible, and sharing a plan does not submit it to the city.
Built by Sage Lewis and Jax, our human and AI partnership at SageRock. The aim is simple: make it easier for residents to understand the numbers and join the conversation.