The study is devoted to the presentation of the functioning of the civic budget in Elbląg from the normative and practical perspective. The authors focus on selected legal and political science issues, i.e. the initiative to submit proposals of tasks to be financed from the civic budget, the territorial and subjective scope of submitted projects and selected aspects of how this form of public consultations works in practice. The results of the research lead to the conclusion that, despite the fact that eight editions of the civic budget have already been carried out, the city has not developed an ideal model of its functioning. The biggest problems seem to be manifested in the legislative inconsistency and the weakening interest of residents.