Ald. Ric McIver likened city council’s budget to walking the grocery store aisles and filling the proverbial cart with all sorts of goodies.

Only when you reached the checkout, he said, council has found they don’t have enough to cover the tab – so they have to put things back.

McIver’s analogous city budget depiction summed up what lay ahead for elected officials in their first of an expected five days of budget deliberations.

Mayor Dave Bronconnier welcomed the public to provide comment or question on the proposed 2009 to 2011 three-year budget.

In doing so, a steady stream of citizens, associations and organizations with a vested interest in shaping the future of Calgary’s tax revenue were unanimous in their sentiment:  the proposed budget is unacceptable.

After the public hearing, and in his own address prior to council’s deliberation, Bronconnier reminded aldermen that much of what lay in the budget was approved in council chambers.
“This document is a council document,” he said.
“All of these decisions, city council, we made.”