If there is any similarity between the 1984 movie “The Philadelphia Experiment” and the city’s budget story, it has to be the looming danger that is not plainly visible to the naked eye.

In the movie, the U.S. Navy tests a high-energy cloaking device to shield a ship and its sailors in 1943. The device goes terribly wrong, and the ship is sent to 1984 while everyone looks in that direction.

However, in present-day Philadelphia, we find Mayor Michael Nutter trying to uncloak the city’s budget process so that we can become active partners in the face of impending fiscal doom. Last night, turnout was strong for the first of four new citizen budget workshops. The mayor hopes these forums will help Philadelphians understand just how big the budget gap is — $1 billion over 5 years — and to hear our preferences about what to cut and whether we are willing to pay more taxes.

Local government is in fresh waters lately. Whether citizens realize it or not, we have a rare opportunity to have a say in a major city budget, due mainly to the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Think about it. This is not another blue-ribbon committee; this is civic engagement on a comprehensive scale.

I could only find one other major city, Portland, Ore., that was attempting civic involvement at this level in the budget process.  There city officials plan to hold similar budget forums next week. This is progressive stuff, folks.  When was the last time Philly was on the same list with Portland, the perfectly-planned, bike-path-laden, biosphere?

Other than that, all I could find was Menlo Park, Ca., using citizen budget workshops in 2005 to help to eliminate its budget gap.

This new budget process in Philadelphia is a risky experiment for the Nutter administration, because if the message from the workshops is raise my taxes sky high (theoretically speaking) but Nutter’s budget officials think that’s political suicide, to whom will he listen? Also, if you know examples of other cities that have held similar citizen budget workshops, please post them in the comments.