So what's the rush?

Listen, I am as happy as anyone working in the Victoria Building that Brockville council has figured out, in more recent years, how to get the budget done before May of the given budget year.

Some of you may not even remember those years when I would cover long budget meetings, gavel-to-gavel, while the flowers were blooming and the birds were singing outside.

But now that council is accelerating discussion on the Sherwood Park Manor request and possibly bringing the biggest part of the budget to a vote Tuesday night, I have to ask, like Councillor David Beatty: what's the rush?

Nobody is talking about a May budget deadline, or even March for that matter. But January does offer a chance to look at some early year-end numbers, and it would provide the courtesy of giving Sherwood Park Manor officials the time they were promised to prepare for the vote on their request.

It's hard to figure what the thinking is behind this move to wrap things up quickly. I'd be inclined to think it's the fiscal hawks clamouring for early closure before their less thrifty colleagues hear from yet another hard-luck case in need of cash.

Except in Beatty's case, it's one of the leaders of the business faction of council, calling for an extended deadline so councillors can take the time to find more cuts.

Is it the other way around, then? Spendthrifts shutting down the debate before too much of that spending is called into question?

Well, Mayor David Henderson is clearly pushing for that early deadline, and he's hardly a tax-and-spend guy.

City staff might be the party most inclined to lobby for a quick end to a budget process that might, if permitted to bring that levy down to the CPI level, start cutting services and positions.

Not that the mayor would favour such a scheme. He might be on board simply out of sheer impatience.

This may or  may not be conspiracy thinking. I am inclined, however, to bet the budget won't get the stamp of approval in principle Tuesday night.

The Sherwood Park request, the council pay freeze and Councillor Tom Blanchard's capital budget suggestions could each, if allowed, take up an hour of debate on their own. This leads me to believe the get-on-with-it lobby might just throw up its hands and say: "Fine, folks, see you after Christmas!"

Which is fine, so long as the extra time is spent productively.

I'm a big fan of longer deadlines.