With spring’s arrival come new ideas, growing concepts, greening of the landscape and the return of warm temperatures.

And city budgets.

This week, there were several meetings across the suburbs as individual government bodies, financials advisors and department heads began the annual review. This gives them a little more than two month to wrestle with programs and decide which ones are the most important, thus divvying up the money to the proper line items.

Bailey: A mystery solved, but it took almost 40 years and new techniques

There is no denying the financial plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1 is one of — if not the — most important work the local leaders do each year.

And a bit of a challenge for reporters to write.

You see, many a reporter gets a nervous twitch when they try to master math. And budgets ain’t nothing but math spread through various departments and categories. Balancing this. Revenuing that. Expensing this. Capital improving that.

Each department, each program, each improvement has to fit into a puzzle. Some of the pieces only seem important to a particular segment of the city. But several categories draw the most attention. Everyone wants police and fire to show up when those departments are called. The bulk of citizens recognize the importance of education. And lawdy, lawdy, if the city doesn’t have the funds or charge the fees to get the garbage collected off the curb ...

Bailey: Someone mentioned Publix and the area is all aflutter

Finally, everybody wants to know if their property taxes are increasing — a product of the budget discussions.

But there are a number of sort of “phantom” budgetary decisions that are important. And may not arise until there is a problem. Everyone wants to make sure the drainage network carries the water out of a neighborhood. People will complain about the resulting traffic snarls, but road improvements, particularly getting those potholes leveled out better be in the budget.

Things like performing arts centers and city-operated fitness facilities and parks are amenities that people like and add to the municipality’s character.

Then there is a look to the future with capital improvements — big-ticket items to cover in the next few years.

All of this contributes to weeks of finagling to see which department can convince the leaders to fund their programs. Can the department heads convince the elected leaders that the expenses associated with their work shouldn’t have been turned down by the administration during the initial internal budget review?

Bailey: Relief on the way for drivers on Germantown Road across Wolf River

I have always found it kind of baffling that some such requests are met with “we can’t afford to do that — right now.” Sort of the “we’ll see” response from parents when they don’t want to tell their kids no.

Yet when it comes time to balance the budget, the decision-makers can add revenues over the suggestions of the financial experts to balance the budget for a different program.

But most of this is considered “making the sausage” — the internal battle to reach the goal. For the most part, residents just want to see the finished product and how much it is going to cost.