$2,000 budgeted for flashlights and batteries for the City Police. Coincidentally, the same amount is budgeted for ammunition. These are the things you can learn from the 2003 Annual Estimates — City of Charlottetown.

The wonderful thing about the City of Charlottetown’s budget is because municipal government is relatively small, and concentrates on solving practical problems, their budget documents can actually be understood and grasped by real people.

The numbers are large, but no so large as to be incomprehensible.

Note to concerned citizens: the City spent more in 2002 on the Smart Communities project (about $205,000) than it spent for heritage preservation (about $88,000).