Citizens were invited to donate to dog walking areas

In the next two years, the Moscow region plans to double the number of areas for walking pets, the press service of the Moscow Regional Duma pleased the population.

“At the end of 2021, more than 50 new areas for walking pets were opened in urban districts of the Moscow region. In the next two years, their number is planned to be doubled in total,” says the message from the regional parliament, from which it is impossible to understand how many walking areas there are today in the Moscow region. It only says that “there aren’t enough of them yet.”

Despite the small number of such points, last year the Ministry of Defense adopted amendments to the law on improvement, where pet owners were obliged not to allow their pets to walk outside the places determined by the decision of local governments. Administrative liability for violating a rule that is impossible to implement in most municipalities was not introduced. But the authorities are in no hurry to search for sites suitable for implementing the law - neither in long-established developments, nor next to new residential complexes, where people sometimes cannot even find schools and kindergartens for decades.

Now legislators in the Moscow region are inviting dog owners to follow the example of Podolsk. There, residents of two districts managed to convince officials of the need to create sites for pets and carry out these projects through initiative budgeting: 1% of the costs were borne by citizens, more than 26% by the local treasury, and the rest by the regional treasury.

It turns out inexpensively, the Moscow Regional Duma believes and confirms the conclusions with infographics.

Let’s say that, following the parliamentarians, residents of the Moscow region accidentally forget that all 300 thousand rubles for the dog park will be taken from their taxes.

What will those who are ready to participate in proactive budgeting need to obtain a new improvement project?

• Organize yourself.
• Collect signatures for an application to the city administration or to a deputy of the Moscow Regional Duma about the need to arrange a place for walking pets.
• Go through two stages of the “People's Budget” competition with the project – municipal and regional.
• Score the maximum number of points in the selections.

The more beneficiaries, the higher the local funding, the more active the voting for the initiative on Dobrodel, the more points and chances for regional financial assistance. In addition, for example, a story about an undertaking in the media and social networks will add 1 point. But this year’s parliamentarians in the region want to devalue his support by 5 points – from 15 to 10.

You also need to formalize your proposals as design and estimate documentation, which does not look like an easy task, taking into account the numerous requirements for areas for walking pets imposed by the regional law on landscaping.

If the initiative budgeting project wins the competition, popular control over its implementation will also be required.

But even such a cumbersome scheme for obtaining funds to implement socially important plans does not scare the entire public. The main problem is that people often find out about the window of opportunity too late.

In 2022, the Moscow Regional Duma announced it four days before the start of accepting applications for participation in initiative budgeting: their collection on the Dobrodel portal will begin tomorrow, February 22, and end on March 5.

No messages on the topic were found from the regional government, which spends billions “to inform residents.”

Zhukovsky’s administration also remained silent. Because it has probably already formed its own pool of projects vying for the “people's budget.”