Student Democrats testify at city budget hearing

Three members of the Central High Student Democrats club testified before the City Council at the budget hearing on Aug. 3.

They were there, along with many others, to oppose the proposed budget increase of 1.2 percent for the police department, bringing its budget up to $161.3 million.

“I want to live in a safe city, but I know that public safety is rooted in economic security, not in how much taxpayer money is spent on the police,” Student Democrats Co-Coordinator Isabella Manhart said in their testimony. “I want to see this money invested in services that aid my peers and their families.”

Manhart felt it was crucial that Student Democrats go to the hearing to testify on this issue.

“We know this is not what community safety looks like,” Manhart said. “So, I thought it was really important to make it easy for myself and other people to advocate against that, and to help them try to make on a local level the changes we need to see on a national level within policing and within community safety.”

While the hearing was going on inside the Civic Center, people who were also in opposition to the police budget increase gathered outside, playing music and using sidewalk chalk to write anti-police messages. There was also a row of tables where progressive Omaha-based groups talked to attendees. Manhart felt this was one of the biggest positives that came out of the whole event for them.

“I thought that was cool, because bureaucracy doesn’t always work, but there’s a lot of power in communities organizing to help themselves, and having independence from the system,” Manhart said. “Had I not gotten involved, I would not have been able to see the amazing work of these organizations. I think it’s eye-opening to what this city can look like.”

The budget later passed on Aug. 17, with some amendments that were asked for at the hearing, including $90,000 that will go to Community Alliance’s family education services, which teaches family members how to help one another during mental health crises. However, the police budget stayed the same, despite the seventy-eight people who testified against it.

“In proportion to Omaha’s population, seventy-eight people isn’t a lot, but it was still frustrating and disheartening, because people worked really hard in the two weeks that they gave us to organize and say that this is wrong for our city,” Manhart said.

But Manhart says that Student Democrats will look for more opportunities for advocacy in the future.

“I don’t think we should stop advocating and stop being involved, just because it didn’t work one time,” Manhart said. “That’s not how bureaucracy works, that’s not how government works, and that’s not how city policy works. We have to stay at it. If they won’t listen to 78 people, next time we’ll come out with one hundred people, and we’ll see what difference that makes.”