"Reason is always a kind of brute force; those who appeal to the head rather than the heart, however pallid and polite, are necessarily men of violence. We speak of 'touching' a man's heart, but we can do nothing to his head but hit it." --G.K. Chesterton

Saturday, November 26, 2016

Budget plan, pen in hand

Every autumn, Council sits through several days of meetings dealing with the city budget for the next year. I must admit that my mind occasionally wanders, which this past month led, not to doodles, but to a poem. Enjoy! ("P&D" = "Planning and Development"; "PRC" = "Parks, Recreation and Culture").

Paradise Cost


From P and D to PRC
And all things in between,
Our GMs point to future work--
The planned and not foreseen.

Coquitlam looks to jobs ahead,
The projects pushed to max.
As always, though, the big concern
Is final hit on tax.

To balance wants with actu'l needs--
Which voters' have to pay--
'Tis thus a job of great import
On which we work this day.

So talk away and please don't stop
Til figures do display.
Then decide, we must, on budget plan
That won't cause much dismay!

    Dedicated to Sheena MacLeod, retiring GM of Finance

And, yes, we finally wrapped up our budget deliberations this past Tuesday. I am hopeful the result "won't cause much dismay."



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