A city in Texas cinematically stepped up the typically boring budget presentation game last month with a stop-motion Lego video that has since gone viral nationwide for its creativity.
Officials in Arlington, Texas determined earlier this year that a budget presentation should be interesting and engaging since they ultimately have real-life impacts on city residents.
That’s when Director of Communication and Legislative Affairs Jay Warren, thought of the unique idea to make a lego-sized city years in the making inside his home to be filmed to explain the bells and whistles that go in to the budget, NBC5 reported
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The four-and-a-half minute video shows lego citizens working and participating the workings of the city as it explains where all of the funds of the city’s $552 million budget are going to such as schools, county taxes and more. By Sunday it had been viewed just under 700,000 times.
“How do we show them how their money’s being spent in an understandable, engaging way,” he told NBC the city office asked itself. “We looked at it and thought, what does the budget really do? We’re building a budget every year. We’re looking at the key priorities city council has and what they want to build for this year.”
He said the project stemmed from a childhood hobby and a Lego city that he has put years and years into building.
“It’s a hobby, admittedly kind of a nerdy hobby, but it’s one that I’ve had since a kid,” Warren told the outlet.
Warren said that getting as many people interested and educated on the city’s budget and where their taxes are going is an important goal.
“We need that feedback. We need that input to make the right decisions for the residents of Arlington,” he said.
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